Coming up in just a few days Winnipeg audiences will have the opportunity to see one of the genuinely great string quartets on the stage today.
The Swedish Stenhammar String Quartet will be in Winnipeg performing two concerts. One for Virtuosi and one for Winnipeg's GroundSwell.
The concert for Virtuosi takes place this Sunday, November 3rd at 2:30pm at the Wag-Qaumajuq's Muriel Richardson Auditorium. Called Stockholm, Paris, Prague:1900, this concert will feature music by Germaine Tailleferre, Bedřich Smetana, and The Stenhammar Quartet’s namesake Wilhelm Stenhammar.
The concert for GroundSwell takes place on Monday, November 4th at 7:30pm at the Murial Richardson Auditorium at the WAG. This concert will feature two world premiere works, by Manitoba composers Örjan Sandred and Gordon Fitzell, as well as music by Inuit Throat singer and composer Tanya Tagaq, Indigenous cellist and composer Cris Derksen and American composer Caroline Shaw.
The two concerts will display the Stenhammar Quartet’s mastery at switching between the more traditional String Quartet literature and contemporary music for string Quartet.
The performance for Virtuosi on Sunday, November 3rd will explore the changing landscape that music was undergoing around the turn of the nineteenth century into the twentieth century. As cellist for the Stenhammars Mats Olofsson states, “So much happened...so many different styles... the Romantic side meets something that is new to come. Schoenberg is on his way and Stravinsky as well. Everything is happening around that time.”:
The concert will feature Smetana's 2nd string Quartet, a quartet written near the end of life, and a quartet he wrote while he was almost completely deaf. The quartet explores his struggles, as he looks back on his life, and the fact that he can no longer hear. As Olofsson describes the piece, “He’s obviously quite frustrated...it’s not like problems are solved at the end of the piece.... but at the same time, it is incredibly beautiful.”
Also on the Virtuosi program, the Stenhammars will be performing Wilhelm Stenhammar’s wonderful 3rd String Quartet. This quartet fits with the concert's narrative because it was written in 1900.
They have recorded all six of Stenhammar’s quartets. “We play all the Stenhammar quartets regularly...we love them all...they are all equally fantastic. Number three has a touch of the past, with a hint of Beethoven...but he also has his own style which is wonderful,” says Stenhammar violinist Per Öman.
Rounding out the Virtuosi program the quartet will be performing French composer Germaine Tailleferre’s impressionistic string quartet. Written in 1919, the influences of the Ravel and Debussy Quartets are apparent, but as Olofsson points out, as a member of the French group of composers known as Les Six, there are also elements of her colleagues, notably the French composer Jacques Ibert.
Stockholm, Paris and Prague:1900 as presented by the Stenhammar Quartet and Virtuosi is sure to be something really fantastic!
For more details on Stockholm, Paris, and Prague:1900 click here.