{"id":1961,"date":"2009-02-19T06:00:47","date_gmt":"2009-02-19T14:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/?p=1961"},"modified":"2013-02-07T19:31:51","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T03:31:51","slug":"spring-fever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/02\/19\/spring-fever\/","title":{"rendered":"spring fever"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"spring<\/a><\/p>\n

This happens just about every February.\u00c2\u00a0 The gloom lifts, the days start to lengthen, the sun comes out, and the temperature rises.\u00c2\u00a0 The daffodils which popped up their greenery a couple weeks ago suddenly have their colorful clown collars on, and my brain goes straight out the window!\u00c2\u00a0 Add to this the fact that we’re not working (at least at the Schnitz) this week, and it’s a brain cell bloodbath!<\/p>\n

I’m knee-deep in listening to quartets on the iPod and looking at the scores as well.\u00c2\u00a0 What I love about chamber music in general, and string quartets in particular, is that there are virtually infinite depths to plumb.\u00c2\u00a0 You can easily spend an entire lifetime exploring and performing any of the great composers’ string quartets (Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Debussy, Ravel, Shostakovich, Bart\u00c3\u00b3k), never mind trying to play them all.\u00c2\u00a0 Then there are the isolated works which might not rise to the highest levels of genius (Janacek, Tchaikovsky, Wolf, Sibelius, Verdi, Grieg), and then there are the more recently composed works which have not had the tests of time quite yet (Adams, Kurtag, Ligeti, Kernis, Rorem, Schnittke).\u00c2\u00a0 What a mind-boggling array of great repertoire!<\/p>\n

On top of that, there are so many incredibly gifted young string quartets (Belcea, Miro, Hagen, Fry Street, Chiara, Pacifica) out there ready to take up the mantle from the preceding generations of great quartets (Berg, Guarneri, Juilliard, Emerson, Amadeus, Takacs).\u00c2\u00a0 The sheer amount of chamber music talent is a challenge for both audiences and performers (competition and overcrowding), but it’s also seemingly a new golden age of the string quartet in both Europe and North America.<\/p>\n

Ok, time to get back to work, and stop looking wistfully outside at the sunshine!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This happens just about every February.\u00c2\u00a0 The gloom lifts, the days start to lengthen, the sun comes out, and the temperature rises.\u00c2\u00a0 The daffodils which popped up their greenery a couple weeks ago suddenly have their colorful clown collars on, and my brain goes straight out the window!\u00c2\u00a0 Add to this the fact that we’re […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_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}},"categories":[136,115],"tags":[3680],"class_list":["post-1961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chamber-music","category-music","tag-string-quartet"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-vD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8281,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/02\/04\/playing-string-quartets\/","url_meta":{"origin":1961,"position":0},"title":"playing string quartets","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 4, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I know that this will come off as a bit extreme, but I have to say, if you are a string player and you do not regularly indulge yourself in playing string quartets: you are a fool. You are missing out of the best of the best of music, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chamber music"","block_context":{"text":"chamber music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/chamber-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Arnica Quartet","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/DSC_0360-300x199.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1919,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/02\/14\/sony-re-releases-8-guarneri-quartet-gems\/","url_meta":{"origin":1961,"position":1},"title":"sony re-releases 8 guarneri quartet gems","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Sony Classical has released eight classic Guarneri Quartet albums (as mp3 downloads on both iTunes and Amazon.com) to honor the quartet's farewell season, which concludes in June 2009.\u00c2\u00a0 Some of these have not been available (except on used LP) for years, and are a welcome addition to any chamber music\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":7704,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/06\/27\/some-music-to-consider\/","url_meta":{"origin":1961,"position":2},"title":"some music to consider","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 27, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been on a reading kick, as you may recall from this earlier entry, and I'm also finding new recordings (both newly recorded and oldies reissued) and have found an example of each that you should definitely check out. First, the new: Schubert String Quartets Rosamunde Death and the Maiden\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "recordings"","block_context":{"text":"recordings","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/recordings-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/4125f-gOurL._SS500_.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7361,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/02\/29\/beethoven-a-metaphysical-presence\/","url_meta":{"origin":1961,"position":3},"title":"beethoven, a metaphysical presence","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 29, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been playing in string quartets for almost all of my adult life. I did the desultory dabbling that one often does as a high school student, and I wish that I'd been more serious about chamber music back then. When college came, so came the chamber music in earnest.\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":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/haydn-mozart-beeth.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/haydn-mozart-beeth.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/haydn-mozart-beeth.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3976,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/02\/02\/amazing-beethoven-cycle-in-nyc\/","url_meta":{"origin":1961,"position":4},"title":"amazing beethoven cycle in nyc","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Wow, I wish I could go out to New York to see this!\u00a0 What a lineup of great, young quartets to have play the greatest cycle of chamber music ever written: the complete string quartets of Beethoven.\u00a0 Very jealous! [link] And as a bonus, the genius of double bassist Daxun\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":7300,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/02\/09\/theres-a-new-quartet-in-town\/","url_meta":{"origin":1961,"position":5},"title":"there’s a new quartet in town","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 9, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"There is indeed a new string quartet in town, one that is aiming to perform great classical music in a non-traditional space. That quartet is Mousai Remix, and it's made up of four players from the Oregon Symphony (Shin-young Kwon and Emily Cole, violins; Jennifer Arnold, viola; and Marilyn de\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":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/mousai-599x485.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/mousai-599x485.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/mousai-599x485.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1961","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=1961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1961\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}