{"id":166,"date":"2007-01-12T12:46:33","date_gmt":"2007-01-12T20:46:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/?p=166"},"modified":"2013-02-07T17:58:20","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T01:58:20","slug":"great-words-about-chamber-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/01\/12\/great-words-about-chamber-music\/","title":{"rendered":"great words about chamber music"},"content":{"rendered":"

The great violist and educator Eugene Lehner<\/a> was a Boston resident for many decades. He was a legendary and revered figure at Tanglewood<\/a> while I was there as a Fellow (alas, I did not get to work with him), and he was the violist of the Kolisch Quartet<\/a>, which performed many of its programs from memory, including the Bart\u00c3\u00b3k quartets and Berg’s Lyic Suite<\/em> (!) and premiered works by Bart\u00c3\u00b3k, Berg, Schoenberg and Webern.<\/p>\n

\"kolisch.jpg\"<\/p>\n

One group which did have the pleasure of working with Lehner is the Daedalus Quartet<\/a>, which was grand prize winner of the Banff String Quartet competition and is a resident ensemble of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center<\/a> under the Chamber Music Society’s CMS Two<\/a> program.<\/p>\n

Daedalus violinist Min-young Kim<\/a> shares this quote from Lehner on the Chamber Music Society’s blog, Intermission Impossible<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Children (he was in his eighties at the time), please sing out your own line like it is the most important melody there is. Do not defer to someone else\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s melody and just accompany them. Play it like you are passionate amateurs.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I love this quote – it’s important to remember the joy and importance of what we do as professionals. It’s so easy to get lost in the minutiae of rhythm, pitch, dynamics and phrasing. I still from time to time hear a work on the radio that I loved so dearly as a youngster (when everything in music was new and exciting), and it really transports me back to those days and makes me see the world anew again.<\/p>\n

Last night I was listening to the local classical station (KBPS-FM www.allclassical.org<\/a>) and there was a recording of the Beethoven Op. 135 quartet playing (performed by the late, great Cleveland Quartet). Instantly I was transported back to my first year at Tanglewood where my quartet performed that piece – it was my first late Beethoven quartet, and it was a magical process of learning the work with our coach, cellist Norman Fischer, and performing the piece as the concluding work on a TMC chamber concert. The way the chamber music program works at TMC is that you are just thrown into a group with people you either know (or most likely do not) and you do a number of coachings and are on your own for as many or as few rehearsals as you see fit. The schedule is always packed even without the chamber music, and you might even be in more than one group. Basically, you get thrown in the deep end and are expected to develop a perfect freestyle medley. I still remember the names of my quartet-mates: Helen Kim and Evangeline Peters, violins, and Kari Docter on cello. I haven’t kept touch with them over the years, but just hearing this piece brings me back into the practice studio with them as if it were just yesterday that we were working on how to develop the variation form of the slow movement or vary the thematic phrasing in the exposition repeat in the last movement.<\/p>\n

I feel as though the phrase “keep it young, and keep it amateur” should be my mantra for the new year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The great violist and educator Eugene Lehner was a Boston resident for many decades. He was a legendary and revered figure at Tanglewood while I was there as a Fellow (alas, I did not get to work with him), and he was the violist of the Kolisch Quartet, which performed many of its programs from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[67,3660,3659],"class_list":["post-166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-classical","tag-viola","tag-violin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-2G","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":154,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2006\/12\/28\/a-violist-you-should-know-about\/","url_meta":{"origin":166,"position":0},"title":"a violist you should know about","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 28, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I got to know Naoko Shimizu at Tanglewood in 1994. We were both fellows at the Tanglewood Music Center. I did not know her well, but there were only 12 violas there that summer, and so everyone knew each other at least a little. One of the 8 weeks we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2375,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/04\/20\/arnica-quartet-the-old-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":166,"position":1},"title":"arnica quartet @ the old church","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"At 12 Noon this Wednesday, April 22nd, the Arnica Quartet will perform on the Old Church's Sack Lunch concert series (SW 11th and Clay).\u00c2\u00a0 The program will feature two works of the 20th century: Maurice Ravel's Sonata for Violin and Cello (1922) and Bela Bart\u00c3\u00b3k's String Quartet No. 4 (1928).\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chamber music"","block_context":{"text":"chamber music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/chamber-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2338,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/04\/17\/heart-of-the-fourth\/","url_meta":{"origin":166,"position":2},"title":"heart of the fourth","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"As promised, here is the first of a series of posts concerning Bart\u00c3\u00b3k's great Fourth String Quartet. The third movement of Bart\u00c3\u00b3k's Fourth String Quartet is its spiritual heart, as well as its physical center.\u00c2\u00a0 Surrounded by two quicker movements (the very fleet and scurrying second movement, and a more\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"bartok31","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/bartok31-400x529.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2331,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/04\/14\/bartok-on-the-brain\/","url_meta":{"origin":166,"position":3},"title":"bart\u00c3\u00b3k on the brain","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The Arnica Quartet is in the final push to learn Bart\u00c3\u00b3k's Fouth String Quartet for a concert at the Old Church on April 22nd (at Noon).\u00c2\u00a0 What a piece!\u00c2\u00a0 I know I say this about everything that we are performing, but it's true - the string quartet literature is truly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chamber music"","block_context":{"text":"chamber music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/chamber-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"bartok","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/bartok.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2419,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/04\/23\/bartok-hangover\/","url_meta":{"origin":166,"position":4},"title":"bart\u00c3\u00b3k hangover","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 23, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Photo: Martha Warrington\/DigitalPDX Well, we did it! We not only got through Bart\u00c3\u00b3k without having to stop and regroup, some of it was actually musical and fun as well!\u00c2\u00a0 A colleague of ours has said that there is no agony more exquisite than the first performance of a difficult piece,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Arnica String Quartet","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/arnicaquartet2-photo_credit-martha_warrington-400x500.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2435,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/04\/26\/arnica-quartet-in-salem-today\/","url_meta":{"origin":166,"position":5},"title":"arnica quartet in salem today","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"If you're looking for something to do today that involves great chamber works, then seeing the Arnica Quartet at the Salem Public Library might be just the ticket.\u00c2\u00a0 What's more, the concert is FREE!\u00c2\u00a0 We're being presented by Camerata Musica of Salem, and the program features three great works for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chamber music"","block_context":{"text":"chamber music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/chamber-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}