Catalyst Quartet: ¡Viva la Música!

Hailed by The New York Times as “invariably energetic and finely burnished…playing with earthy vigor,” the Grammy Award-winning Catalyst Quartet combines a serious commitment to diversity, education, and contemporary works with virtuosic playing “reminiscent of great quartets of the past such as the Guarneri and Budapest” (Richmond Times). In this concert, Catalyst concludes their year as CMNW Artists-in-Residence with an exciting evening of Latin-inspired works by Paquito D’Rivera, Astor Piazzolla, and Maurice Ravel, along with George Gershwin’s gorgeous Lullaby.

“Like all great chamber groups, the Catalyst Quartet is beautiful to watch, like a family in lively conversation at the dinner table: anticipating, interrupting, changing subjects.”

— The New York Times

The Old Church
Thursday, 11/30 • 7:30 pm PT

Program

Click on any piece of music below to learn more about it.

PAQUITO D’RIVERA Three Pieces

PAQUITO D’RIVERA Three Pieces

But, Just a Minute?!
A Farewell Mambo
Wapango

One thing is for certain: Paquito D’Rivera has led an interesting life. Born in Cuba in 1948, he grew up during the turbulent years of the Cuban Revolution, yet managed to become a prodigy on the classical saxophone. He debuted as soloist with Cuban National Symphony at age 17, then co-founded the absolutely seminal Latin jazz band, Irakere, in 1973.

In 1980, however, D’Rivera made a life-altering decision: he defected from Cuba. Now a U.S. citizen, he is a legend of contemporary music with 14 Grammy Awards to his name and collaborations with everyone from Dizzy Gillespie to Yo-Yo Ma under his belt.

The Catalyst Quartet commissioned D’Rivera’s But, Just a Minute?! in 2022 to help celebrate their 10th anniversary. Its title humorously references the difficulty of their request: a string quartet that lasts only a minute (give or take). Of course, D’Rivera rose to the challenge with characteristic verve, providing a dense, rhythmic quartet that rushes by in no time at all.

D’Rivera composedA Farewell Mamboin 2013 as a tribute to his dear friend and fellow Cuban exile, comedian Guillermo Álvarez Guedes (1927–2013). Álvarez Guedes always walked on stage to a signature mambo tune, which serves here as the starting point for D’Rivera’s reflective (but fittingly humorous) musical farewell.

In Wapango (1970), one of his best-known compositions, D’Rivera explores an Afro-Mexican rhythm from the Caribbean state of Yucatán. Highly syncopated throughout, it is an excellent example of his dense blend of Latin, classical, and jazz influences.

—© Ethan Allred

ASTOR PIAZZOLLA Angel Suite (arr. Catalyst Quartet)

ASTOR PIAZZOLLA Angel Suite (arr. Catalyst Quartet)

I. La Introducción del Ángel
II. La Milonga del Ángel
III. La Muerte del Ángel
IV. La Resurrección del Ángel

Today, the name Astor Piazzolla is practically synonymous with tango, but it wasn’t always that way. When the Argentine composer first came to prominence in the 1950s and 60s, many established tango figures viewed his music with revulsion—as did the legendary Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges. They found his approach harsh, dissonant, and angular, the very aspects that make his music so innovative and beloved today.

Piazzolla composed his Angel Suite as incidental music for Alberto Rodríguez Muñoz’ play, El tango del Ángel (1962), which portrays a fantastical story of an angel trying to bring peace to a rough Buenos Aires neighborhood. He initially scored the suite for his own tango quintet, comprised of electric guitar, violin, piano, double bass, and an accordion-like instrument called the bandoneón. However, it has since been re-arranged for many instrumentations, including this string quartet version by the Catalyst Quartet. The suite’s four movements can be performed together or as excerpts.

In La Introducción del Ángel, Piazzolla sets the scene with a meditative walking bass line that gradually evolves into a cagey tango. Then, in La Milonga del Ángel, he explores the milonga, another Argentine dance that predates the tango, with intense, emotive verve, particularly in the violin solo. The energetic La Muerte del Ángel occurs at the play’s climax just as the angel is killed in a knife fight, a moment depicted musically by dramatic, violent-sounding slides. La Resurrección del Ángel offers a calm, solemn conclusion before settling into a hymn-like final cadence.

—© Ethan Allred

GEORGE GERSHWIN Lullaby for String Quartet

GEORGE GERSHWIN (1898-1937) Lullaby

George Gershwin (1898–1937) didn’t take the traditional path to becoming a classical composer. The son of Russian Jewish immigrants, he left school at age 15 to become a “song plugger” on Tin Pan Alley, New York City’s popular music hub. For several years, he sat at the piano all day, helping sell the latest sheet music to the city’s growing middle class while taking in the latest musical trends.

Before long, Gershwin’s astonishing talent became evident to the Tin Pan Alley bigwigs, and in 1919 he penned his first nationwide hit, “Swanee.” That same year, he wrote his first Broadway score, as well as his first composition for a more traditional classical ensemble: the Lullabyfor string quartet.

Lullaby never quite got its due during Gershwin’s lifetime; he often trotted it out for friends at parties but never saw it performed in public. In 1963, however, George’s brother Ira rediscovered the original sheet music and shared it with harmonica virtuoso Larry Adler, who quickly premiered it in an arrangement for harmonica and string quartet. The original string quartet version received its premiere four years later in the capable hands of the Juilliard String Quartet.

Like Gershwin’s better-known works such as Rhapsody in Blue, Lullaby thoroughly displays his unique ability to blend popular and classical styles. But unlike those brash, jazzy masterpieces, Lullaby puts a twist on the American popular music style of the 1910s by mixing popular rhythms and melodies together with a hushed, sweet little lullaby.
—© Ethan Allred

MAURICE RAVEL String Quartet in F Major

MAURICE RAVEL String Quartet in F Major (1875-1937)

I. Allegro moderato – Très doux
II. Assez vif – Très rythmé
III. Très lent
IV. Vif et agité

This remarkable, polished string quartet seems all the more impressive when one considers that Ravel was only twenty-eight when he wrote it. Even this student work clearly embodies the principles for which the composer would be best remembered: his careful craftsmanship and ability to infuse a broad palette of colors into perfectly assembled forms.

Unlike Debussy, whose own string quartet may well have inspired many elements of this work, Ravel frequently looked to the models of Mozart and Haydn as inspiration for his own inventive handling of form and counterpoint. The composer himself valued the “classical” virtues of this work, once boasting that “Stravinsky is often considered the leader of neoclassicism, but don’t forget that my String Quartet was already conceived in terms of four-part counterpoint, whereas Debussy’s Quartet is purely harmonic in conception.”

The first movement, like Debussy’s, often uses a modal rather than a tonal harmonic language, yet still adheres very clearly to the traditional sonata-allegro form. The ascending scale in the cello that opens the work clearly outlines F major, yet the theme in the upper strings seem stuck in the aeolian mode. The composer’s ability to create synthesis between disparate harmonic poles is astounding.

The second movement, justifiably popular, is a scherzo pizzicato, in which the plucked strings perhaps evoke the strumming guitars of Ravel’s Basque heritage, while the interplay between simple and compound meters create a polyrhythmic texture akin to Balinese gamelan which Ravel, like Debussy, had encountered in Paris around the turn of the century.

In the third movement, a nocturne of sorts, Ravel is most free with his form: the instruments seem to improvise on themes, as though meditating on elements, yet frequently and mercurially shift in character. Listen closely and you will hear traces of the opening theme from the first movement, cast in new guises.

In his exciting finale, Ravel goes farther with the concept musical memory, as recollections of previous themes in the earlier movement enter the scene, taking their stage bows as the quartet comes to an energetic close.

—© Patrick Jankowski

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