Feeling so grateful — what more could I ask for when I already have beautiful music, incredible musician friends and such a warm, welcoming audience? 🥹😍
Special thanks to @theopenscore for these awesome photos 🫶
Love is in the orchestra 💕
Here’s to Assistant Concertmaster @rule0917 and violist @hezviola — partners on and off the stage — and the many other couples of the TSO. Happy Valentine’s ❣️
more widmann! such a pleasure to share more of this quartet we’ve come to know so well.
widmann’s hunting quartet demands total emotional commitment, as well as extremely precise ensemble and technique. in addition to this it needs almost a “classical-era” treatment where all of the scaffolding that was needed to put these blocks into place must be removed in order for the piece to truly soar.
— this basically means that a listener shouldn’t be able to hear all of the mico-cues, listening for specific instruments for ensemble purposes, any feeling of unnaturally landing on beats, etc. when perceiving the performance as a whole. this is honestly true for all pieces but widmann required this kind of commitment as much as a piece by haydn would in order to sound good.
once we felt we could execute the work as accurately as possible, we pushed ourselves to internalize that feeling deep in our bodies as a quartet. in this way, we were able to make the sonic contrasts and the tempo/speed as extreme as possible, in line with the uncannily earnest, rabid character that the piece demanded… without having the ensemble fall apart.
check out the video for more on what’s actually going on in the piece. and find the whole performance on youtube! more clips to come….
performers: @rolstonquartet (@rule0917 , @jason.issokson , @hezviola , @eomnomnom )
director: larry weinstein
executive producer: barry shiffman
audio recording: @pouyamusicsound , @hotdamnitsben
video recording: @riddlefilms@liam_romalis
venue: @koernerhallrcm@theroyalconservatory
many thanks to the banff centre for arts and creativity!
#stringquartet #widmann #contemporaryclassical #jörgwidmann #newmusic
