MUSIC

On Tuesday, April 21, 2009 the Emerson String Quartet will close the Houston Friends of Music season. Just as in the case of the Tokyo String Quartet (which opened the HFM season in September), the Emerson needs no introduction to the HFM audience or to any other in the world of classical music.

This will be the twenty first time that this distinguished quartet has appeared on the HFM series.

Acclaimed for its insightful performances, dynamic artistry and technical mastery, the Emerson String Quartet has amassed an impressive list of achievements: a brilliant series of recordings exclusively by Deutsche Grammophon since 1987; eight Grammy® Awards, including two for “Best Classical Album,” an unprecedented honor for a chamber music group; three Gramophone magazine awards, and performances of the complete cycles of Beethoven, Bartók and Shostakovich quartets in major concert halls throughout the world.

The ensemble has been praised globally as a string quartet that approaches both classical and contemporary repertoire with equal mastery and enthusiasm.

“The Emerson has the traditional string quartet virtues; each player is a strongly characterized individual, but the ensemble is temperamentally as well as sonically in balance. The four minds play upon each other, and upon the work, in perfect harmony; the players are in tune in all senses of the phrase.” – The New Yorker

“ America’s greatest quartet.” –Time Magazine

Eugene Drucker, violin
Philip Setzer violin
Lawrence Dutton viola
David Finckel,cello

Scheduled Program:

Mozart: Quartet No. 22 in B-flat Major, K. 589
Prokofiev: Quartet No. 1 in B Minor, Op. 50
Webern: Six Bagatelles for String Quartet, Op. 9
Dvořák: Quartet No. 13 in G Major, Op. 106

Houston Friends of Music is funded in part by grants from The City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance.

Photo Credit: Mitch Jenkins.