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The American String Quartet will play Franz Schubert’s famous string quartet next weekend in Taos.
New Mexico cellist Sally Guenther gets together with old friends in the American String Quartet to play Franz Schubert’s famous string quintet in Taos next weekend.
Guenther, who has residences in Taos and Santa Fe, went to school with violinist Laurie Carney and violist Daniel Avshalomov at The Juilliard School during the early 1970s and has kept in touch with them through the years.
At the invitation of Taos Chamber Music Group’s artistic director Nancy Laupheimer, Guenther joins the quartet when they play in Taos Community Auditorium on March 3.
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If you go WHAT: Taos Chamber Music Group presents the American String Quartet WHEN: 7:30 p.m. March 3 WHERE: Taos Community Auditorium, 145 Paseo del Pueblo Norte, Taos HOW MUCH: $20 general admission, $12 for those under 16 at www.taoschambermusicgroup.org or at the door. For more information call 575-758-0150 |
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“I have a long connection with the American String Quartet that goes back to Juilliard and also to Taos School of Music, where my dad was a board member for many years,” explained Guenther. “The American String Quartet was on the Taos School of Music’s faculty for 20 years. I would visit my parents in Taos during the summers and hear the quartet play during faculty concerts. Nancy Laupheimer also connected with the quartet during the time they spent summers in Taos.”
While Guenther says the American String Quartet has played Schubert’s String Quintet with other cellists, the piece is new for her. Guenther has spent her career as an orchestral musician. Playing chamber music is a more recent activity.
“It wasn’t until I moved to New Mexico full-time in 2007 that I began to play chamber music regularly,” she added. “Now I travel from Albuquerque to Taos to play music.”
Schubert’s String Quintet in C Major was composed two months before the composer’s death in the summer of 1828. It is the only string quintet in Schubert’s large body of work. Many other string quintets use two violins, two violas and one cello, but Schubert’s piece employs two cellos instead of two violas.
“In the first and last movements of the pieces, the two cellos work together as a team,” said Guenther. “The first cello (played by Wolfram Koessel) plays a high melody, while the second cello part that I play has a harmonic role. It’s like a duet. In the second movement, the second cello has an intricate part that’s complicated and rhythmic. Every movement is so beautiful and so special. I think the only reason the piece isn’t played more often is because it’s very long. It’s 30 minutes or so in length.”
The American String Quartet also plays Haydn’s String Quartet Op. 54, No. 1 and Janacek’s First String Quartet.
Celebrating its 37th season of performing, the American String Quartet frequently collaborates with a variety of instrumentalists and composers. This season quartet members play with double bassist Timothy Cobb, clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, cellist Iris Regev and pianists Robert McDonald and Menahem Pressler, among others.
Since the beginning of the year, the quartet has traveled from California to Israel to perform in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. It recently completed concerts with the Chamber Music Society of Detroit and the Chamber Music Society of Hamilton, Ontario. After the Taos performance, the quartet returns to the East Coast to present concerts with Stoltzman.
