UMS Concert Program, March 8, 1985: St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble --

Season: 106th
Concert: Fifty-eighth
Rackham Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

lnteifiatipnal -Presentations
THE UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble
MICHAEL FELDMAN, Artistic Director
Eriko Sato, Violinist Louise Schulman, Violist
Erica Kicscwctter, Violinist Maureen Gallagher, Violist
Mitsuru Tsubota, Violinist Myron Lutzke, Cellist
Mayuki Fukuhara, Violinist Marcy Rosen, Cellist
John T. Kulowitsch, Double Bass
Friday Evening, March 8, 1985, at 8:30 Rackham Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
PROGRAM
Divertimento for Strings, K. 136................................... Mozart
Allegro Andante Presto
Double Quartet for Strings (1984)...................... Ellen Taaffe Zwilich
Allegro moderato Lento
Allegro vivo Adagio
INTERMISSION
Octet for Strings in E-flat major, Op. 20....................... Mendelssohn
Allegro moderato, ma con fuoco Andante
Scherzo: allegro leggicrissimo Presto
Fifty-eighth Concert of the 106th Season Twenty-second Annual Chamber Arts Scries
Program Note by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (b. 1939)
One day last season, Charles Wadsworth and I met to discuss possible instrumentation for my Chamber Music Society commission. Among the possibilities he suggested was a string octet, offering the services of the resident Emerson String Quartet and a quartet of other Chamber Music Society members. I was immediately intrigued by the suggestion and, as I took a few days to let the idea simmer, I became more and more enthused. A Double String Quartet would certainly offer me the possibility of writing a large-scale work (which I wanted to do), and eight soloists would offer unlimited chamber music potential. Beyond that was the challenge of an unusual medium that would impose its own demands. Adding to the attraction was the fact that writing for strings is a very direct and intense form of communication for me.
The resultant Double Quartet for Strings is first a large-scale work exploring the implications in the first few phrases of music. Second, it is a piece of chamber music governed by the belief that a player can be a brilliant soloist one moment and a sensitive collaborator the next.
Double Quartet for Strings is in four movements. The relations of the two quartets change in an evolutionary way from the first through the last movement. In the first movement the group is treated as an octet. The tensionrelationship between the two quartets is expressed in the fact that when significant musical material occurs first in one quartet, it recurs in the other. In the Lento a kind of competition between players of the same instrument comes to the fore, beginning with interplay between the cellos and ending with interplay between the violas. In the Allegro vivo movement, tension between the two quartets comes to a head, with antiphonal exchanges occurring at the frequency of several times per second at the peak of the movement. This gives way to a blending of the two quartets at the end of the third movement; and in the fourth, Adagio, there is a dramatic unity of effort in which the predominant mode is a unison of the four violins and a merging of the lower instruments as well.
About the Artists
The members of St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble perform chamber music in various com?binations and form the nucleus of the larger Orchestra of St. Luke's. In the ten years of their existence, they have performed chamber music, orchestral music, and opera, and during the summer the group is in residence at the Caramoor Festival in Katonah, New York. There, they give seven orchestra concerts, three chamber orchestra concerts, and six chamber music concerts during their six-week stay. The group has performed with conductors John Nelson, Charles Mackcrras, and Raymond Leppard, and with singers such as Marilyn Home and Tatiana Troyanos. Increasingly they arc heard on tour and in 1983 made their European debut at the Aldcburgh Festival in England. Last summer they toured with the Vienna Choir Boys to leading east coast and Canadian cities. The current season brought a new scries of chamber orchestra concerts at New York's newly renovated Town Hall, assisted by Felix Galimir, Ruth Laredo, and Catherine Malfitano.
Last month, on February 24 in New York City, the Orchestra performed in the world premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Requiem, under the direction of Lorin Maazel with Placido Domingo as soloist and the St. Thomas Boys Choir and Winchester Cathedral Choir of England. This perform?ance will be telecast on PBS stations the evening of April 5. Also in April, the players will collaborate with Maestro Nelson in New York to celebrate Bach's Tricentcnnial with performances of the St. John Passion, St. Matthew Passion, and B-minor Mass during Easter Week.
Paul Badura-Skoda, Pianist.................................. Sun. Mar. 10
Academy of Ancient Music................................ Thurs. Mar. 14
National Symphony Mstislav Rostropovich............... Wed. Mar. 20
Faculty Artists Concert.................................... Sun. Mar. 24
Sherrill Milnes, Baritone...................................... Fri. Mar. 29
Polish Chamber Orchestra................................ Thurs. Apr. 18
May Festival, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.........Wed.-Sat. May 1-4
Ann Arbor Summer Festival 1985
June 29 -July 23 inclusive To be announced this month.
New 1985-86 Concert Season
Choral Union, Chamber Arts, Choice, and
Debut & Encore Series, plus special concerts
To he announced April 15.
UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY
Burton Memorial Tower, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1270 Phones: (313) 665-3717, 764-2538