MUSIC ON FIRE: Beethoven, Brahms & Fagerlund
Beethoven’s incendiary and revolutionary Grosse Fuge forever changed music. The almost incomprehensible genius of his “Great Fugue” has powered every genre of music since—from classical to jazz, Motown to heavy metal. We’ll explore equally fiery works by Brahms and Finnish composer Sebastian Fagerlund, inspired by the musical bonfire Beethoven ignited. After the Grosse Fuge, music would never be the same.
7 pm | Kaul Auditorium Prelude Performance with local young artists
We have a special tradition of “picnics” before concerts at Reed College’s Kaul Auditorium. Reed’s catering service Bon Appétit offers food and drink service beginning at 6pm. Alternately, you can bring your own picnic, but alcoholic beverages must be purchased on-site.
This concert is sponsored by Sokol Blosser Winery.
Reed College, Kaul Auditorium
Saturday, 7/13 • 8:00 pm PT
Program
Click on any piece of music below to learn more about it.
- BEETHOVEN Grosse Fuge in B-flat Major, Op. 133
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Grosse Fuge, Op. 133
The music Ludwig van Beethoven composed in the final years of his life has an innovative quality, largely unmoored from standard musical conventions he could no longer hear. Listening to Beethoven’s music from this period feels like eavesdropping on the composer’s internal ruminations as profound musical ideas formed inside his mind. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the massive fugue Beethoven wrote as the finale to his String Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 130.
Beethoven intended the Grosse Fuge to conclude Op. 130, but its austere character, not to mention its length, unbalanced the rest of the quartet’s movements (at over 15 minutes long, the Grosse Fuge is longer than the first movement and twice as long as the internal sections). Ignaz Schuppanzigh, Beethoven’s longtime teacher, friend, and the leader of the quartet that premiered Op. 130, and Beethoven’s publisher, Matthias Artaria, urged the reluctant Beethoven to write a different ending. Beethoven grudgingly complied, and Artaria published the Grosse Fuge as a stand-alone work, with the opus number 133.
Not surprisingly, Beethoven’s contemporaries rejected the Fuge. One critic described it as “incomprehensible, like Chinese” and “a confusion of Babel.” These linguistic analogies are telling, since the Grosse Fuge was, in fact, a new musical language. It is no wonder most of Beethoven’s contemporaries couldn’t make sense of it. The Fuge is truly music out of time: it belongs to the future, not to 1826 Vienna.
By the 20th century, the Grosse Fuge was gaining new acceptance and understanding, even admiration. Igor Stravinsky declared, “[it is] an absolutely contemporary piece of music that will be contemporary forever.”
—© Elizabeth Schwartz
- SEBASTIAN FAGERLUND String Quartet No. 1, “Verso l’interno”
SEBASTIAN FAGERLUND (b.1972) String Quartet No. 1, “Verso l’interno” (17’)
I. Pròlogo
II. Danza 1
III. Danza 2
IV. Canto
V. Danza 3
VI. EpilogoFinnish composer Sebastian Fagerlund has established himself as one of the most prominent European composers of his generation. Fagerlund’s music explores philosophical questions and existential experiences with what the BBC Music Magazine describes as “boundless technical resources at the service of a considerable imagination.”
“A sort of primitivism is present in many of my works,” Fagerlund observes. “As a result, rhythm, in particular, has become very important. I am fascinated by relentless drive and energy.” The three Danzas from Fagerlund’s 2006 String Quartet No. 1, “Verso l’interno” reflect his preoccupation with this “relentless drive” in their untamed savage power. The subtitle references an “inward turning” to the measured phrases of a translucent Canto, the central section of this six-movement work. Fagerlund writes, “This melodical and fragile movement forms the center of the piece where the musical nucleus of the string quartet is presented. The bigger the distance is to the core of the piece, the more distant and transformed the material becomes.”—© Elizabeth Schwartz
- BRAHMS Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op. 34
JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833–1897) Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op. 34 (41’)
I. Allego non troppo
II. Andante, un poco Adagio
III. Scherzo: Allegro
IV. Finale: Poco sostenuto – Allegro non troppoStories of Johannes Brahms’s painstaking compositional process are legion; in his early works, Brahms often took years to realize his initial musical ideas. As he wrote, Brahms’s music sometimes morphed from one genre to another—for example, his first piano concerto started off as a two-piano sonata and then became a symphony before assuming its final form. So too with Brahms’s Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op. 34, one of the most performed and recorded of all piano quintets.
Op. 34 was always a quintet; it was the instrumentation that changed. First scored for string quartet plus one cello, an ensemble Franz Schubert utilized in his C Major Quintet, Brahms finished it in August 1862 and sent it to violinist/composer Joseph Joachim and pianist/composer Clara Schumann. Both reacted positively, but Joachim also expressed concerns. “This piece of music is certainly of the greatest importance and is strong in character,” he noted, “… but what is lacking, to give me pure pleasure, is, in a word, charm.” Brahms refashioned Op. 34 into a sonata for two pianos, but after its lackluster premiere in 1864, Clara opined, “It cannot be called a Sonata. The first time I tried the work I had the feeling that it was an arrangement.” Finally, at the suggestion of conductor Hermann Levi, Brahms rescored Op. 34 for string quartet and piano.
Brahms’s signature melancholy declares itself in the opening notes, and runs through all four movements. Sometimes, as in the Allegro non troppo, the atmosphere is one of youthful romantic angst; in other places like the Scherzo, triumphant Beethovenian exclamations alternate with nervous, agitated mutterings from the strings. The Andante features a quasi-lullaby, in the style of Schubert, with hints of harmonic disquiet murmuring beneath its placid surface. The Finale opens with a slow introduction, followed by episodes alternating an up-tempo Roma tune with unsettled, violent outbursts.
—© Elizabeth Schwartz
Artists
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Soovin Kim
Violin & Artistic Director
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Soovin Kim enjoys a broad musical career regularly performing Bach sonatas and Paganini caprices for solo violin, sonatas for violin and piano ranging from Beethoven to Ives, Mozart, and Haydn concertos and symphonies as a conductor, and new world-premiere works almost every season.
When he was 20 years old, Kim received first prize at the Paganini International Violin Competition. He immersed himself in the string quartet literature for 20 years as the 1st violinist of the Johannes Quartet. Among his many commercial recordings are his “thrillingly triumphant” (Classic FM Magazine) disc of Paganini’s demanding 24 Caprices and a two-disc set of Bach’s complete solo violin works that were released in 2022.
Kim is the founder and artistic director of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival (LCCMF) in Burlington, Vermont. In addition to its explorative programming and extensive work with living composers, LCCMF created the ONE Strings program through which all 3rd through 5th grade students of the Integrated Arts Academy in Burlington study violin. The University of Vermont recognized Soovin Kim’s work by bestowing an Honorary Doctorate upon him in 2015.
In 2020, he and his wife, pianist Gloria Chien, became artistic directors of Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon. He, with Chien, were awarded Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s 2021 CMS Award for Extraordinary Service to Chamber Music. Kim devotes much of his time to his passion for teaching at the New England Conservatory in Boston and the Yale School of Music in New Haven.
Upcoming Concerts & Events
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Mark Kosower
Cello
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Mark Kosower is a consummate artist equally at home on stage as soloist, chamber musician, and as the Principal Cello of The Cleveland Orchestra. He maintains a very active career as a soloist, having appeared with the Orchestre de Paris, the Bamberg Symphony, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the China National Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, and the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Detroit, Florida, Houston, Milwaukee, Minnesota, Oregon, North Carolina, Phoenix, and Seattle symphony orchestras. Mr. Kosower has collaborated as soloist with such eminent conductors as Herbert Blomstedt, Sir Andrew Davis, Christoph Eschenbach, Ton Koopman, and Franz Welser-Möst. Festival appearances include the Aspen, North Shore Chamber, Pacific, Ravinia, Seattle Chamber Music Society, and Santa Fe Chamber music festivals. Mr. Kosower has recorded for the Ambitus, Delos, Naxos, and VAI labels, and is an Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient. He is also a much-sought-after teacher and regularly appears on faculty for Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America, Colorado College’s Summer Music Festival, and California’s Hidden Valley Music Seminars, in addition to working with the fellows at the New World Symphony in Miami.
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Julianne Lee
Violin/Viola
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Named one of the best string quartets of the last 100 years by BBC Music Magazine, Julianne Lee joined the Dover Quartet as its violist in September 2023. She has forged a remarkable career as both a violinist and violist, frequently appearing as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player. She holds the position of Assistant Principal Second Violinist at the Boston Symphony Orchestra and has been a member of the BSO violin section since 2006, serving as Acting Assistant Concertmaster from 2013 to 2015.
Ms. Lee has toured nationally and internationally with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Marlboro Music Festival, and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, where she held the title of Guest Principal Violist. She also served as the second violinist of the Johannes String Quartet from 2015 to 2018. Throughout her illustrious career, she has performed as a soloist with orchestras in Germany, the United States, and South Korea, and as a chamber musician at numerous music festivals, including the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Chamber Music at the Banff Centre, and the Marlboro Music Festival.
Ms. Lee graduated with a unanimous first prize from the Conservatoire Supérieur de Paris in France. She received her Bachelor’s degree from the Curtis Institute of Music, and a Master’s degree from the New England Conservatory, where she double majored in violin and viola. Ms. Lee holds a strong belief in the importance of teaching and shaping the next generation of musicians. She teaches at the Curtis Institute of Music and frequently gives masterclasses.
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George Li
Piano
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Praised by The Washington Post for combining “staggering technical prowess, a sense of command and depth of expression,” pianist George Li possesses an effortless grace, poised authority, and brilliant virtuosity far beyond his years. Since winning the Silver Medal at the 2015 International Tchaikovsky Competition, Li has rapidly established a major international reputation and performs regularly with some of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors.
Li’s 2023-24 season begins with a recital at the Grand Teton Music Festival followed by his debut with the Aula Simfonia in Indonesia. He will tour China and Europe and will make his debut with the Prague Philharmonia. U.S. performances include the Cincinnati and Milwaukee Symphonies, Florida Orchestra, Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Chicago Sinfonietta, and recitals across the country. A committed collaborator, George returns to the ECHO series with the Dover Quartet and Davies Symphony Hall with violinist Stella Chen.
Li is an exclusive Warner Classics artist, with his debut recital album released in 2017. His second recording in 2019 featured Liszt solo works and Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, recorded live with Vasily Petrenko and the London Philharmonic. His third album with the label will include solo pieces by Schumann, Ravel, and Stravinsky, and will be released in the spring of 2024.
Li gave his first public performance at Boston’s Steinway Hall at the age of ten, and in 2011 performed for President Obama at the White House in an evening honoring Chancellor Angela Merkel. Among Li’s many prizes, he was the recipient of the 2016 Avery Fisher Career Grant, the 2012 Gilmore Young Artist Award, and the First Prize winner of the 2010 Young Concert Artists International Auditions. He is currently pursuing an Artist Diploma at the New England Conservatory. When not playing piano, he is an avid reader and photographer, as well as a sports fanatic.
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Claire Wells
Violin, Protégé
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American violinist Claire Wells is acclaimed by audiences and press for her expressive musicality and rich, singing quality of sound. Solo concert engagements have brought her to halls like the Wigmore Hall, the Meyerson Symphony Center, Bass Performance Hall, Teatro Degollado, and Konzerthaus Berlin. Having won major prizes in international competitions, Claire Wells is the Mendelssohn-Prize 1st Prize winner and Commission Prize winner at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Competition 2021, 2nd Prize winner at the Michael Hill International Violin Competition 2023, and has taken major prizes at the Indianapolis International Competition, Mirecourt International Competition, and Lynn Harrell Competition, among others.
Claire Wells grew up in a musical family, playing both violin and piano from the age of three. Today, Wells has performed with major orchestras such as the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, the Jalisco Philharmonic, and the Shen Zhen Symphony Orchestra, among others.
Now studying at the Kronberg Academy with Mihaela Martin since 2022, Claire Wells studied privately with Brian Lewis, Sandy Yamamoto, and Emanuel Borok, and in 2017 attended the Yehudi Menuhin School with Lutsia Ibragimova.
A passionate chamber musician, Claire Wells has worked alongside artists such as Enrico Pace, Nobuko Imai, Frans Helmerson, Christian Tetzlaff, and Steven Isserlis. Wells has also taken coachings from the likes of Ana Chumachenco, Boris Kuschnir, Andras Schiff, and Robert Levin. Claire Wells has performed at festivals such as the International Holland Music Sessions, Music@Menlo chamber music festival, Chamber Music Connects the World, Gstaad Festival, the Verbier Festival, and others. Wells plays on a Nicola Amati, on loan from a generous donor.
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Opus13
String Quartet, Protégé
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Sonoko Miriam Welde, violin
Edvard Erdal, violin
Albin Uusijärvi, viola
Daniel Thorell, celloThe Swedish-Norwegian string quartet, Opus13, is one of Europe’s most promising, up-and-coming young string quartets. Formed in 2014, the ensemble now comprises Sonoko Miriam Welde, Edvard Erdal, Albin Uusijärvi, and Daniel Thorell. They were 2nd prize winners of the prestigious Banff International String Quartet Competition 2022. In 2023, they received the Norwegian Equinor Classical Music Award, a coveted prize of one million Norwegian Crowns (approx. $96,000). Previous recipients of the award include Leif Ove Andsnes, Lise Davidsen, and Vilde Frang.
They have guested concert series and festivals such as the International Chamber Music Festival Utrecht in the Netherlands, Yeulmaru and Yonsei Chamber Music Festivals in South Korea, Rusk Festival in Finland, Swiss Chamber Concerts, and most of the major chamber music festivals in Norway, including Bergen International Festival, Stavanger, Rosendal, Trondheim, and Risør Chamber Music Festivals. Highlights in 2024 included debuts in Scotland and the United States.
Opus13 has collaborated with international top musicians such as Janine Jansen, Olli Mustonen, Julian Bliss, Alisa Weilerstein, Tabea Zimmermann, Jonathan Biss, and Konstantin Heidrich. They are mentored by Berit Cardas and Bjørg Lewis of the Vertavo Quartet, and have benefitted from masterclasses with many of the world’s leading chamber musicians, including members of the Belcea Quartet, Quatuor Ébène, Artemis Quartett, Oslo String Quartet, and Quatuor Mosaïques.
In their early years, Opus13 received invaluable support and performing experience from the Oslo Quartet Series’ Talent Program and the Crescendo Mentoring Program.
The Opus13s are Founders and Artistic Directors of Vinterspill på Lillehammer, a chamber music festival in the winter town of Lillehammer.