WQXR presents “Trout Week,” a celebration of chamber music
Five superlative ensembles headline “Trout Week: A WQXR Chamber Festival,” on April 2-8, presented by WQXR, New York City’s classical station. Inspired by one of the chamber repertoire’s most beloved pieces, Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet, the festival showcases the passion, intensity and emotional richness of one of classical music’s most rewarding genres.
At the heart of the festival are five nightly concerts on April 4-8 at The Jerome L Greene Performance Space, the station’s innovative and intimate live event venue, featuring cutting-edge groups, from ETHEL, the JACK Quartet and the Ensemble ACJW to the Gramophone Award-winning Ebene Quartet and world-renowned Tokyo String Quartet. Each evening performance will be hosted by Bill McLaughlin (whose programs St. Paul Sunday and Exploring Music are carried on WQXR), who will discuss with the performers what is so special about the genre. The Greene Space will also host several free lunchtime concerts throughout the festival.
Additionally, WQXR will present a jam-packed schedule of music and features on the air and online at 105.9 FM, on www.wqxr.org, and on Q2, the station’s 24/7 new music web stream. The festival will put a spotlight on chamber music from multiple angles, including radio programs devoted to the genre, listener polls, a chamber music photo gallery, ongoing coverage on the WQXR blog and, of course, recordings of Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet.
“Chamber music is magnetic because it’s an intensely personal genre, inspired by a do-it-yourself ethos,” said Graham Parker, Vice President, WQXR. “It is ever evolving and is found everywhere — in diverse spaces from apartments to concert halls. We are excited to build WQXR’s first full festival around this truly inventive format. With a wide variety of live performances in The Greene Space, inspired radio programming, and accessible, interactive web features, ‘Trout Week’ gives New Yorkers a variety of ways to connect with WQXR, with each other, and with excellent chamber music.”
At The Greene Space:
From Monday April 4 to Friday April 8, at 7pm, WQXR will present different chamber groups live in The Greene Space, with live broadcasts on WQXR-FM and live video webcasts on wqxr.org. The host Bill McLaughlin will also lead conversations with the quartets. The Greene Space is located at 44 Charlton Street (at Varick Street); for tickets and more information, go to wnyc.org/thegreenespace.
Monday, April 4: France’s Gramophone Award-winning Ebene Quartet performs Debussy’s classic String Quartet and arrangements of pieces by Miles Davis and Astor Piazzolla, plus “Misirlou,” the tune made famous on the Pulp Fiction soundtrack and featured on the group’s new Virgin/EMI Classics recording, Fiction.
Tuesday, April 5: Musicians from New York’s Ensemble ACJW perform Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Cello, as well as David Bruce’s octet Steampunk, written especially for the group.
Wednesday, April 6: New York City’s ETHEL, a string quartet dedicated to new music, performs Julia Wolfe’s Early That Summer …; Dohee Lee’s HonBiBaekSan; Jacob TV’s Syracuse Blues; Pamela Z’s ETHEL Dreams of Temporal Disturbances; Huang Ruo’s The Flag Project (excerpt) and Anna Clyne’s Roulette.
Thursday, April 7: The JACK Quartet, a New York-based group specializing in contemporary music, performs Tetras by Iannis Xenaxis and Death Valley Junction by Missy Mazzoli, as well as Ari Streisfeld’s arrangements of pieces by the haunted Renaissance composer Gesualdo.
Friday, April 8: The renowned Tokyo String Quartet performs on its “Paganini Quartet” of matched Stradivarius instruments Haydn’s String Quartet in F major Op. 77 No. 2, the fourth movement of Bartók’s String Quartet No. 4, and Beethoven’s “Grosse Fugue” Op. 133.
Free Lunchtime Concerts:
The Greene Space will host several free chamber music concerts at noon during the festival. Chamber music devotees and novices alike are invited to bring their lunch and enjoy a free performance.
Tuesday April 5: Members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center will play Brahms’s rich, impassioned Piano Quartet in G minor.
Thursday April 7: the Brooklyn-based trio Janus will play works by Debussy, Treuting, and Negron.
Friday April 8: the Escher String Quartet will perform Zemlinsky and Brahms.
On WQXR 105.9 FM:
The week’s broadcasts range from duos to trios, quartets, quintets, chamber orchestras, and chamber vocal ensembles. Destination programming includes:
All Ears – Saturday, Arpil 2 at 10pm: Host Terrance McKnight introduces Trout Week on Saturday, April 2 with a guided tour through past and present one-on-a-part music (10pm).
The Choral Mix – Sunday, April 3 at 7am: Host Kent Tritle explores the intimacy and immediacy of the chamber-choir repertoire.
Quartets @ 4 – weekdays at 4pm: This program traces the history of the string quartet, surveying the form’s development with a major work.
Exploring Music – weeknights at 11pm: dive deep into the chamber works of Franz Schubert, including his famous “Trout” Quintet.
Showdown at High Noon – Wednesday April 6: Find out who’s got the best catch of Trout Week when WQXR listeners will have a chance to weigh in on their favorite version of Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet. Also, the April 6 edition of Young Artist Showcase will feature chamber performances by up-and-coming musicians.
On WQXR.org:
Trout Week will include a smorgasbord of fun listener-interactive features on wqxr.org, including listener Top Ten lists and a video of Chamber Music of Lincoln Center co-director/Emerson String Quartet cellist David Finckel on the madness of making chamber music.
On Q2:
Chamber music lives on Q2, WQXR’s 24/7 new music web stream. Monday through Friday on April 4-8 at 12am-4am and 12pm-4pm, host Nadia Sirota will explore new literature for string quartet. Hammered!, airing Monday through Friday on April 4-8 at 11am and 11pm, features a week-long celebration of music for keyboard ensembles, and on Sunday, April 2 at 2pm, Cued Up on Q2 presents a selection of the most interesting chamber music works performed in New York City over the past few months. Q2 is available at www.wqxr.org/q2.
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New York Public Radio is New York’s premier public radio franchise, comprising WQXR, WNYC and The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space, as well as www.wqxr.org, www.wnyc.org and www.thegreenespace.org. Classical 105.9 FM WQXR is New York City’s sole 24-hour classical music station, presenting new and landmark classical recordings as well as live concerts from the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic, and the city’s top venues, immersing listeners in a rich musical life. As America’s most listened-to AM/FM news and talk public radio station, reaching 1.1 million listeners every week, WNYC extends New York City’s cultural riches to the entire country on-air and online, and it presents the best national offerings from networks National Public Radio, Public Radio International, American Public Media, and the British Broadcasting Company. In addition to its audio content, WQXR and WNYC produce content for live, radio, and web audiences from The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space, the station’s street-level multipurpose, multiplatform broadcast studio and performance space. For more information about New York Public Radio, visit www.nypublicradio.org.
For further information, please contact:
Jennifer Houlihan, WNYC/WQXR: [email protected], (646) 829-4497
Glenn Petry, 21C Media Group: [email protected], (212) 625-2038
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