Just a shameless plug: the Arnica Quartet will be giving a performance at the Loucks Lecture Hall of the Salem Public Library (central branch on Liberty Street) on Sunday, September 16th at 3:00 p.m.

We’ll be playing an early Haydn quartet (Op. 20 no. 4), the lone quartet of Claude Debussy, and the Brahms Piano Quintet with esteemed local pianist Cary Lewis, of the Lanier Trio.

The best part is…it’s free! Hope we see you there!

Here’s a great article  by David Brewster about the much-respected and financially secure Chamber Music Northwest from the online journal Crosscut.  Here’s the opening:

 If Seattle is a bright beacon flashing out its grandness, Portland is a bushel basket, under which well-kept secrets gleam. My favorite example is Portland’s Chamber Music Northwest summer festival, now in its 37th year and one of the finest in the country. My family has been going for the past 25 years, but I rarely encounter a music lover in Seattle who’s ever been. CMNW, doing just fine, thank you, shows no inclination or need to market to a Seattle audience.

It’s only 2:55 in the afternoon and we’ve reached the century mark - the latest forecast predicts 102ºF by 5:00 p.m. Thank goodness for the two window air conditioners we bought a few years ago - I remember sweating through the hot weeks of July and August in our dank hole of an apartment, and can’t imagine living without them now! [Read more →]

[Photo courtesy Chamber Music Northwest]

I’ve been ruminating about my experience of watching the Emerson Quartet perform at Carnegie Hall a week ago today. I was telling a friend about the concert, and happened to note to her that the quartet now performs standing up (with the exception of cellist David Finckel, who sits on an elevated platform). She was quite dumbfounded that they had continued with the experiment. I had heard that they were performing this way, but did not know why or for how long they would do so. Lately, I’ve noticed that some younger quartets (those still in music school or just out) have taken up this manner of performing.

My question is this: are quartets meant to perform standing up? Is it still chamber music? [Read more →]

The pianist Jeremy Denk (of Think Denk fame) has gotten a very nice mention of his performance of Charles Ives‘ “Concord” Sonata. Now Jeremy can use “brilliant” - the New York Times, in his promo materials! You can read the entire article (ostensibly a review of a concert from the Emerson Quartet’s Beethoven “Quartets in Context” series going on a Carnegie Hall this month) here. Here’s the bit on Mr. Denk: [Read more →]

Last night I was able to attend the second of two concerts by the Pacifica Quartet at Portland State University’s Lincoln Hall. It was a wonderful program (if a bit conservative) that showed what a wonderful young quartet the Pacifica has become. The program began with Mozart’s “Dissonant” Quartet, Kv. 465, from his set of six dedicated to Joseph Haydn. The Pacifica’s excellent ensemble, pure intonation and wide-ranging dynamics were given full show here, and their absolutely hushed, controlled, and beautifully blended pianissimos were what truly set them apart from many other accomplished ensembles. Whereas other quartets might bowl one over with their prodigious sound production, the Pacifica’s four members are each able to get down to the softest of sounds while still projecting to the back of the hall and keeping intonation and balance right on the knife’s edge of perfection. [Read more →]

Happy April Fool’s Day! As a violist, I take special pride in what is, along with bassoonists, our special day. It’s been a busy week. I’ve been in rehearsals for the two different concerts that we’re doing with the OSO this week: the subscription classical series which involves Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, Samuel Barber’s Prayers of Kierkegaard, and Tchaikovsky’s ‘Pathetique‘ Symphony; and the Inside the Score concert this afternoon which concerns the behind the scenes workings of Beethoven’s ‘Pastoral‘ Symphony. [Read more →]

Last night the Arnica Quartet performed as part of the new (and hopefully annual) MarchMusic series held at the new OHSU medical office building (now informally known as the “Tram building”). It was an encouraging experiment. The lobby of this new LEED platinum-certified structure has surprisingly wonderful acoustics - we could hear each other very well, hear ourselves very well, and the three story atrium contributes a nice reverberation bloom to the sound. I would have liked to have talked a bit more, and I know that the audience was expecting more of that, but there wasn’t a graceful way to get to the microphone after the intermission, before we began the Debussy.

Overall, I think the concert went well. There were the usual glitches that always happen in a first public performance of a piece together, but there were a lot of nice moments as well. I’m finding that each time I approach a new Beethoven quartet, that there is yet more to marvel at. The care of construction, the sureness of his orchestration, and an innate sense of drama derived from the form - it’s all right there, as good as you could want, and all within the constraints of the typical Classical forms. All this in Op. 18 - before Beethoven reached his 30th birthday.

The Debussy is a continuing revelation.  Having done the Ravel and Debussy with the Ethos Quartet, I’m firmly convinced that the Debussy is the superior composition. The Ravel owes much to it, and is a beautiful and masterful piece. But the Debussy is so tight in its construction, and one is so unaware of the construction nonetheless, that it is a miracle. The taut, driven energy of the opening of the first movement is contrasted by the languid fluidity of the third movement, while the second movement makes extensive use of pizzicato (plucking of the strings), and the final movement makes the quartet a cyclical event with the high energy return of the opening theme of the piece. The ending is exhilarating, almost orchestral in its scope and sweep. It’s a difficult piece to play well, but always worth the effort.

It was also nice to meet one of my readers - “Eva” - in the flesh, and to have Elaine Calder (Oregon Symphony consultant) take time out of a busy evening to come hear us.

I happened upon this wonderful article by Edward Dusinberre, the first violinist of the Takacs Quartet. It describes wonderfully the give and take of a great string quartet - and others that are less than great. Quartets of all levels pretty much function in this way, but only if they have four compatible members. Enjoy!

The Arnica Quartet will present a concert at the new OHSU Center for Health and Healing [directions] in the South Waterfront district on Wednesday, March 14th at 7:00 p.m.

We’ll be performing the string quartet of Claude Debussy and Beethoven’s Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 18 no. 6.

This concert is part of a March series of concerts to present classical music in the newly-developed South Waterfront district. Here is the schedule so far (subject to change):

• March 7 at 7:00 p.m. - Sarah Tiedemann, flute and Jessica Black, piano
• March 14 at 7:00 p.m. - Arnica String Quartet
• March 21 at 7:00 p.m. - Adam LaMotte, violin and Janet Coleman, piano