Claisical
Connections
Mark Steinberg, Serena Canin, Misha Amory and Nina Lee
Brentano String Quartet links
modern composers to past masters.
Suzanne Chessler
Contributing Writer
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September 22 • 2011
iN
S
erious music representing ear-
lier generations will be linked
with serious music represent-
ing today's generation in a concert to
be performed by the Brentano String
Quartet for the Chamber Music Society
of Detroit.
"Fragments: Connecting Past and
Present," part of a year of programs
celebrating the 20th anniversary of the
quartet, begins 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 1,
at the Seligman Performing Arts Center
in Beverly Hills.
The group commissioned six contem-
porary composers to respond to pieces
not completed by Bach, Haydn, Mozart,
Schubert and Shostakovich. The com-
missioned composers include Charles
Wuorinen, Sofia Glubaidulina, John
Harbison, Vijay Iyer, Bruce Adolphe and
Stephen Hartke.
"The non-newly-commissioned piec-
es are incomplete in different ways," says
violinist Mark Steinberg, 43, who will
give a pre-concert talk 6:45-7:30 p.m.
"Some are sketches of ideas. Another
has complete movements of a piece that
has not been finished.
"The commissioned composers were
inspired by the pieces and knew their
pieces were going to be played alongside
the earlier pieces. Outside of that and
the length of the new works, we didn't
give them any parameter."
In addition to Steinberg, Brentano
members who commissioned compos-
ers they've worked with or admired are
Serena Canin on violin, Misha Amory
on viola and Nina Lee on cello, the only
member who joined after the quartet's
founding.
"Some of these earlier pieces are
incredibly moving and beautiful music
that can't be programmed [indepen-
dently] in any way because they're not
complete Steinberg explains. "This pro-
gram gives them a context in which they
can be heard!'
Brentano members, who met through
school and various festivals, tour inter-
nationally and this season will debut in
Israel.
"I was in Israel when I was 10," says
Steinberg, taken by the grandfather who
introduced him to music and suggested
he study violin.
"I probably knew I wanted to be a
professional musician in high school.
By the time I was in college, I knew I
wanted to be first violinist in a string
quartet. I was playing professionally in
grad school."
Steinberg, who holds degrees from
Indiana University and the Juilliard
School, has been heard in chamber music
festivals in Holland, Germany, Austria
and France and participated for four
summers in the Marlboro Music Festival.
He also has appeared with the
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln
Center and in trio and duo concerts
with pianist Mitsuko Uchida.
Solo engagements have been with the
London Philharmonia, the Los Angeles
Philharmonic, the Kansas City Camerata
and the Auckland Philharmonia.
"As a violinist, I find the chamber
music repertoire extraordinary," says
Steinberg, drawn to the flexibility of
sound and inflection of his instrument.
"It's also compelling to have a conversa-
tion in music with other people"
The conversation and elements of
the "Fragments" concert, he believes,
humanizes the composing process.
"The audience gets involved with the
earlier pieces, and when the pieces stop,
listeners are faced with the realization
of the actual person writing them:' he
explains.
"It's like the audience is in the workshop
[experiencing] the process and then gets to
see what the process is today as well:'
The Brentano String Quartet
performs 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct.
1, at the Seligman Performing
Arts Center, 22305 W.13 Mile,
Beverly Hills. Mark Steinberg
gives a pre-concert talk 6:45-7:30
p.m. $25-$75. (248) 855-6070;
comehearcmsd.org .