Contemporary Quartets
featuring
RUSQUARTET
February 3, 2022 - RUSQUARTET performing the works of Annette Kruisbrink, Greg Pfeiffer, and Leonardo Le San.
Contemporary Quartets Project is creating a new way to produce contemporary String Quartets
The live recorded virtual concert of Argus Quartet will be broadcasted on February 3, 2022 at 7:00 AM EST
RUSQUARTET was founded in 2001 at the Academic College of Music of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory under the tutelage of Galina Soboleva, great cellist of the Prokofiev String Quartet. Members of the RUSQUARTET are DMA graduates from the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory*where they have been students of the Professor Dmitry Shebalin (Borodin String Quartet).
The musicians are actively promoting contemporary composers and rarely performed compositions. The quartet's programs include Andrei Eshpai's *Concordia discordance, two string quartets by *Mikhail Marutaev, a string quintet for two violins, two violas, and a cello by Alexander Lokshin, as well as compositions by Georges Onslow,Lex van Delden (the Netherlands), Kelly-Marie Murphy (Canada), Steve Martland (Great Britain), and Jonathan Dove (Great Britain), Olli Mustonen (Finland).
String Quartet Nr. 1 - in memoriam Domenico Scarlatti
Annette Kruisbrink
Dutch guitarist and composer Annette Kruisbrink (1958) has composed over 400 works, primarily for guitar and guitar with other instruments. Her compositions have been published in America, Canada, and various European publishers. She has received numerous prizes and awards at prestigious composition competitions. Kruisbrink holds guitar and composition seminars throughout the world and is often a jury member at international competitions. She has been performing as a soloist and has been playing in various chamber music ensembles. From 2000-2010 she taught contemporary music and ethno music at the Conservatory of Music in Zwolle. So far, 25 CDs and 2 DVDs which exclusively include Kruisbrink’s works have been recorded. She is director of the Anido Guitar School in Emmeloord where she also teaches guitar. Annette wrote a large number of didactic works and methodologies for guitar.
String Quartet nº 1 - Annette Kruisbrink in memoriam Domenico Scarlatti Movements: 1.Trillongo consists of trills from the 545 sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti. From all previews (Tavola Tematica) in Alessandro Longo's Scarlatti Sonatas in XI Volumes (Ricordi), only those containing trills and grace notes were taken and then arranged according to key. All ornaments are placed under / next to each other.Tone durations are increased / decreased at will, octave transpositions occur, pitches are not changed. 2. Amanzalone is inspired by Scarlatti's mother. Antonia Maria Anzalone. Stretched "slow motion" trills, both in length and range. A dramatic cello and viola part with on top the generated overtones by these 2 parts. Alienating thin sounds. 3. In Scardome, a combination of intuition and Morse code. Bars 39-67 Morse + name alphabet (letters are linked to predetermined pitches): Alessandro + Domenico. hese have been transformed into Morse and translated into corresponding rhythmic patterns. The letters are linked to predetermined pitches.
Glare
Greg Pfeiffer
As a stylistically diverse composer of chamber, solo, and electronic music, Greg Pfeiffer's works range from unapologetically tonal to unforgivingly atonal. His works have been performed throughout the United States and internationally including performances at the June in Buffalo festival, the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt, and by groups such as the Boston Microtonal Society, ThingNY, The Curiosity Cabinet and the Contemporary Chamber Players of Stony Brook University.
Composed in 2015, Glare is a short work for string quartet. Compositionally it primarily focuses on harmonies alternating from one 12 note equal-tempered tuning to another 12 note equal-tempered tuning a quarter-tone away. The chords are therefore "in tune" with themselves at any given moment, but subsequent chords shift into the other tuning. The aesthetic effect of all this is somewhat peculiar in that on one hand it feels familiar locally but the harmonic progression seems detached and unresolvable. The title attempts to relate this sonic experience with something visually analogous.
Microbiome for String Quartet Vol.2
Leonardo Le San
Composer Leonardo Le San has had a distinguished career of premiers at Carnegie Hall, The Merkin Hall, The Palais Ehrbar of Vienna, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, and The Harvard Musical Association to name a few. Also a notable appearance as both composer and pianist at the White House. Leonardo has been featured on RCN and international classical TV through the Euro-channel of Allegro-HD reaching the network’s two million viewers. Le San’s upcoming compositional premieres include a piece for world-renowned and Naxos artists, Duo Villa-Lobos. The work is titled Chaconne Andino for cello and acoustic guitar. Leonardo’s other new work is a sonata for viola/violin and piano titled The condor and woodpecker sonata to be premiered by Leerone Hakami of Juilliard. Le San's new single release has been chosen by more than twenty curators on Spotify Playlists.
I’m interested in what I can’t see or what I don’t know. The current pandemic has taught us how much we do not know, see or understand about viruses, illness, and the planet. I found microbiology a fascinating field to learn about microbes viruses, that inhabit the human body. During the quarantine, my family and I made sketches, drawings in connection to microbiology. From that material and reading the microbiome work evolved. I wrote an orchestral one-movement work while also composing the three movements for the Microbiome string quartet. I was so intrigued by how viruses invade and multiply in living cells. This process of copying genetic material before moving to other cells gave me a diverse and full palette for this composition. The second movement is a lament for the departed. The finale was inspired by the struggle and human innovation to create vaccines.