Galvin Cello Quartet
Music is a language that rarely needs translation and, even more, takes over when words fail.
The melodies, harmonies, rhythms—its lyrical qualities speak to us all. That’s why the members of the Aizuri Quartet, a string quartet that opens Market Square Concerts’ 2023-24 season on Sept. 27, views the music they play as a living art and a springboard for special interactions.
“In 1829, Goethe described Beethoven quartets as ‘four intelligent people conversing, which illustrates just how insufficient words are in capturing the richness of communication this genre has to offer,” said Peter Sirotin, co-director for Market Square Concerts.
Sirotin cites even more history on string quartets. They often served, he said, as a medium for the most intimate expression, boldest experimentation and longest creative collaborations.
“From Haydn’s hidden musical puns delighting a handful of his initiated friends under the nose of his unsuspecting aristocratic patrons to Shostakovich’s searing testimony about the brutality of Communist dictatorship, string quartets offer a deep insight into a lived experience of people from different countries and historical periods,” he said.
These ideas of cross-cultural collaboration, creative experimentation and community building are becoming more a focus of younger performers entering the musical arena, Sirotin added, making it an exciting time for chamber music as a genre. The Aizuri’s program is no exception. The concert will take place at Temple Ohev Shalom, where the award-winning string musicians will perform works by Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn, as well as by Robert and Clara Schumann, composers who profoundly changed the course of music history.
On Wednesday, Nov. 1, Temple Ohev Shalom will again play host to another award winner, the Amernet Quartet, which will commemorate the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht with a moving tribute to composers who perished in the Holocaust: Viktor Ullman, Erwin Schulhoff, Pavel Haas and Viktor Kohn.
The Amernet Quartet has been a passionate advocate of this powerful and moving music and will perform this repertoire in only a few cities in the United States. This music’s relevance is as strong today as it has ever been.
“In a broader cultural sense, the four great composers whose music will be performed in our November concert represent just a part of the tremendous loss of artistic and cultural heritage inflicted on the world by Nazism and World War II,” Sirotin said. “While the loss of life, as well as the destruction of European cities and monuments are well documented, the devastating loss of humanistic values and culture are somewhat overlooked.”
Despite the many decades that have passed, we are still experiencing the cultural shifts caused by the unfathomable losses resulting from the Holocaust, Sirotin added.
Just after the new year on Jan. 14, the Varshavski-Shapiro Piano Duo will return to Harrisburg’s Whitaker Center with music for four hands, including their own arrangement of Stravinsky’s ballet, “Petrouchka,” and works by Ravel, Schubert, Reger and Falla.
Continuing with the season of musical concerts are two groups making their Harrisburg debut. One is a young group of musicians, the Galvin Cello Quartet, which will perform a wide-ranging program of music, including a world premiere of a composition by Zev Malina on Feb. 21 at Market Square Presbyterian Church.
On March 24, another group will debut in the area and also will mark the debut of a venue new to Market Square Concerts. The Poulenc Trio will perform music by Rossini, Shostakoch, Glinka, Handel and Poulenc at the Derry Presbyterian Church in Hershey.
“They have recently acquired a spectacular new Steinway grand piano,” Sirotin said. “We are thrilled to expand our geographical reach in this acoustically splendid venue.”
The season will finish on April 28 at Market Square Presbyterian Church with the always-anticipated “Stuart and Friends” program that will include the maestro’s favorite vocal repertoire from the romantic era, including those from Schumann, Berlioz and Mendelssohn, as well as music of Rodgers and Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim and Cole Porter. Stuart Malina will be joined by a Harrisburg native, baritone Jonathan Hays, and Brazilian soprano Sophia Hunt.
“I believe that shared experience of a great live performance can be especially meaningful and even perhaps therapeutic to more people than ever at this point,” Sirotin said. “My hope is that chamber music concerts can serve as a ‘spiritual fireplace’ to gather around and experience community in a way that is healing and energizing.”
For more information on Market Square Concerts, visit www.marketsquareconcerts.org.
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