Award-Winning Dover Quartet Releases Debut CD This Friday, Plays Music from All-Mozart Album at NYC’s SubCulture on Nov 2

The Dover Quartet – the group the New Yorker calls “the young American quartet of the moment” – makes its recording debut this Friday (Oct 14) with the release of Tribute: Dover Quartet Plays Mozart on the Cedille label. The album pays homage to the Guarneri Quartet, with the same program as that ensemble’s own first recording, and Guarneri violist Michael Tree joins the Dovers for a Mozart quintet on the new disc.  At NYC’s SubCulture on November 2, the group performs the two quartets from the CD and engages in an onstage conversation with Guarneri violinist Arnold Steinhardt. The Dovers will be signing copies of the new CD after the performance. The event is part of an especially busy season for the Dovers in NYC that includes performances in December and May for the Peoples’ Symphony Concerts, marking a continuation of their three-and-a-half year appointment as the first Ensemble-in-Residence in the 116-year history of that organization.

Tribute: Dover Quartet Plays Mozart is an album of special personal and musical significance to the group. As the New Yorker recently wrote: “This outstanding quartet, which is already carving out an individual style, stands as the inheritor of the Curtis Institute’s proud neo-Romantic tradition.” It was at Curtis that the Dover Quartet first formed, and there that its members studied and took coaching from members of the legendary Guarneri Quartet. As the Dovers’ cellist, Camden Shaw, explains in an insightful liner note:

“All four of us grew up listening to, and falling in love with the Guarneri’s recordings; there is a grittiness, an emotional potency, and a constantly shifting balance between individuality and blend that makes their playing transcendent. It’s no overstatement to say that even before we met and studied with members of the Guarneri, they had already shaped the way we felt about chamber music.”

Because of this profound and formative influence, on their first recording the Dovers decided to pay their respects to the older ensemble. Recorded at Curtis last December, the album pairs the composer’s two final string quartets – in B-flat, K. 589 and F, K. 590 – with his Quintet in C minor. This program recalls the Guarneri’s own first recording, made for RCA Red Seal 50 years ago this year, so it is fitting that Michael Tree – the Guarneri’s founding violist and one of the Dovers’ most valued mentors – joins them on the quintet. The new album thus represents a symbolic passing of the mantle from the older group to the younger one; as the Chicago Tribune observed, shortly before the recording sessions, “The Dover Quartet players have it in them to become the next Guarneri String Quartet – they’re that good.”

The group has also already recorded its follow-up title for Cedille: a World War II-themed collection of quartets by Viktor Ullmann, Simon Laks, and Shostakovich, due for release next fall.

The release of the new CD heralds a momentous season for the group, which embarks on a pair of North American tours, first in company with double-bassist Edgar Meyer and then with mandolin virtuoso Avi Avital; makes debuts in eleven cities across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland; performs at Washington’s Kennedy Center, as well as in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle, and two dozen more U.S. cities; and launches the second leg of its three-year residencies at Northwestern University and the Peoples’ Symphony Concerts in New York. In Chicago, they also give a performance on November 28 in the “Live From WFMT” series, an annual series of live studio concerts at 98.7 FM, streamed live at wfmt.com, which are hosted and produced by Kerry Frumkin. Over the course of the season, the Dovers also undertake the first complete Beethoven quartet cycles of their career, at the Montreal Chamber Music Festival, the University of Connecticut, and the University at Buffalo, where they follow in the footsteps of the Budapest, Guarneri and Cleveland Quartets by performing the master composer’s complete quartet output in the university’s famous Slee Cycle series. The Dover Quartet was also recently named winner of the prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award for the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons, and recognized with the 2016 Hunt Family Award, one of the inaugural Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Awards. As Strad magazine notes, “with their exceptional interpretive maturity, tonal refinement and taut ensemble,” the Dovers are “pulling away from their peers.”

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Tribute: Dover Quartet Plays Mozart

Label: Cedille Records

U.S. release date: October 14

DOVER QUARTET
Joel Link, violin
Bryan Lee, violin
Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, viola
Camden Shaw, cello

PROGRAM:
Mozart: String Quartet in B-flat, K. 589
Mozart: String Quartet in F, K. 590
Mozart: Quintet in C minor, K. 406 (with Michael Tree, viola)

Album Release Concert
Nov 2, 6:30pm (doors open at 5:30pm)
SubCulture
45 Bleecker Street, New York City

PROGRAM:
Mozart: String Quartet in B-flat, K. 589
Onstage chat with Arnold Steinhardt of the Guarneri Quartet
Mozart: String Quartet in F, K. 590
Tickets: $15 in advance / $20 at the door

Additional Fall Performances
Oct 13
Brussels, Belgium
Royal Brussels Conservatory

Oct 15
Surrey, England
Oxshott & Cobham Music Society

Oct 16
London, England
Wigmore Hall

Oct 18-20
Evanston, IL
Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music
Educational residency

Oct 21
Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia Chamber Music Society
Kimmel Center
Mozart: Divertimento in D, K. 136
Rossini: Duet for Cello and Double Bass (with Edgar Meyer, bass)
Dvořák: Quartet in F, Op. 96, “American”
Edgar Meyer: String Quintet (with Edgar Meyer, bass)

Oct 23
Pittsburgh, PA
Pittsburg Chamber Music Society
Carnegie Music Hall
Haydn: String Quartet in D minor, Op. 103 (fragment)
Rossini: Duet for Cello and Double Bass (with Edgar Meyer, bass)
Dvořák: String Quartet No. 12 in F, Op. 96, “American”
Edgar Meyer: String Quintet (with Edgar Meyer, bass)

Oct 26
Tucson, AZ
Arizona Friends of Chamber Music
Leo Rich Theatre
Mozart: Divertimento in D, K. 136
Rossini: Duet for Cello and Double Bass (with Edgar Meyer, bass)
David Ludwig: Pale Blue Dot
Edgar Meyer: String Quintet (with Edgar Meyer, bass)

Oct 28
Portland, Oregon
Chamber Music Northwest
Newmark Theatre
Mozart: Divertimento in D, K. 136
Rossini: Duet for Cello and Double Bass (with Edgar Meyer, bass)
Dvořák: String Quartet No. 12 in F, Op. 96, “American”
Edgar Meyer: String Quintet (with Edgar Meyer, bass)

Oct 30
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Performances
Herbst Theatre
Mozart: Divertimento in D, K. 136
Rossini: Duet for Cello and Double Bass (with Edgar Meyer, bass)
Dvořák: String Quartet No. 12 in F, Op. 96, “American”
Edgar Meyer: String Quintet (with Edgar Meyer, bass)

Nov 5
Lincoln NE
Lincoln Friends of Chamber Music
Johnny Carson Theater
Mozart: Quartet in F, K. 590
Britten: Quartet No. 2 in C, Op. 36
Beethoven: Quartet in C, Op. 59, No. 3

Nov 6
Omaha, NE
Vesper Concerts
Mozart: Quartet in F, K. 590
Britten: Quartet No. 2 in C, Op. 36
Beethoven: Quartet in C, Op. 59, No. 3

Nov 8
Reno, NV
Argenta Concert Series
Mozart: Quartet in F, K. 590
Britten: Quartet No. 2 in C, Op. 36
Beethoven: Quartet in C, Op. 59, No. 3

Nov 13
Greenfield, MA
Valley Classical Concerts
Mozart: Quartet in F, K. 590
Shaw: Plan & Elevation (The Grounds of Dumbarton Oaks) (2016)
Beethoven: Quartet in C, Op. 59, No. 3

Nov 15
Storrs, CT
University of Connecticut
Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts
Beethoven Quartet Cycle: Part 1
Beethoven: Quartet in F, Op. 18, No. 1
Beethoven: Quartet in E-flat, Op. 127
Beethoven: Quartet in C, Op. 59, No. 3

Nov 17
Storrs, CT
University of Connecticut
Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts
Beethoven Quartet Cycle: Part 2
Beethoven: Quartet in E-flat, Op. 74, “The Harp”
Beethoven: Quartet in G, Op. 18, No. 2
Beethoven: Quartet in C-sharp minor, Op. 131

Nov 19-21
Concerts in Hawaii
Mozart: Quartet in F, K. 590
Britten: Quartet No. 2 in C, Op. 36
Beethoven: Quartet in C, Op. 59, No. 3, “Razumovsky”
Nov 19: Maui, HI (Maui Arts & Cultural Center)
Nov 20: Honolulu, HI (University of Hawaii)
Nov 21: Kona, HI (Hawaii Concert Society)

Nov 28–30
Evanston, IL (TBC)
Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music
Educational residency

Dec 6
Fayetteville, AR
Walton Arts Center
Tsintsadze: Six Miniatures for String Quartet and Mandolin (with Avi Avital, mandolin)
Smetana: Quartet No. 1 in E minor, “From My Life”
David Bruce: Cymbeline for String Quartet and Mandolin (with Avi Avital, mandolin)

Dec 7–9
Rockport, MA
Rockport Chamber Music Festival
Mozart: Quartet in F, K. 590
Britten: Quartet No. 2 in C, Op. 36
Beethoven: Quartet in C, Op. 59, No. 3

Dec 10
New York, NY
Peoples’ Symphony Concerts
Washington Irving High School
Mozart: Quartet in F, K. 590
Britten: Quartet No. 2 in C, Op. 36
Beethoven: Quartet in C, Op. 59, No. 3

 

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© 21C Media Group, October 2016