Musique du Jour Presents! – The Classical String Quartet
$30 ($25 senior, $15 ages 17-25; ages 7-16 free with adult)
- Elizabeth Blumenstock, violin
- Cecilia Archuleta, violin
- Tekla Cunningham, viola
- Meg Brennand, cello
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — String Quartet No. 19 in C major, K. 465 "Dissonance"
Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf — Selected works
Acclaimed guest violinist Elizabeth Blumenstock will join three of the Pacific Northwest's finest early-music musicians—Cecilia Archuleta, violin, Tekla Cunningham, viola, and Meg Brennand, violoncello—to offer their unique interpretations of three masterworks by Haydn, Dittersdorf, and Mozart in the acoustically ideal chamber music setting of the Queen Anne Christian Church.
This will be the only period-instrument string quartet concert in Seattle this season.
Widely admired as a Baroque and Classical violinist of expressive eloquence and technical sparkle, Elizabeth Blumenstock is a long-time concertmaster with the Bay Area's Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and American Bach Soloists, frequent concertmaster for Ars Lyrica Houston, concertmaster of the International Handel Festival Orchestra in Göttingen, Germany, and Artistic Director of the Corona del Mar Baroque Music Festival in Orange County, California. Her love of chamber music has involved her in several accomplished and interesting smaller ensembles including Voices of Music, Galax Quartet, Live Oak Baroque, Ensemble Mirable, and Sarasa. Elizabeth teaches regularly for the Juilliard Historical Performance program, at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the American Bach Soloists' summer Festival and Academy, and the Valley of the Moon Music Festival. She will be playing a 1660 Andrea Guarneri violin built in Cremona, Italy.
Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, Joseph Haydn, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart were friends who got together to play string quartets. Dittersdorf played first violin, Haydn, second violin, with Mozart on viola and the Czech composer Johann Baptist Vanhal on cello—ah, to have been a fly on the wall.
So it is fitting our program includes Dittersdorf's lively Quartet No. 6 in A major (1788), Haydn's profound Quinten Quartet in D minor, Op. 76 No. 2 (1796-97), and Mozart's masterful Dissonance Quartet in C major, K. 465 (1785). Tickets available online (credit card) or at the door (cash or check).
COVID-19 Protocol: Proof of vaccination and masks required. Seats will be assigned to achieve social distancing.
Number of tickets are limited, so please order as soon as possible. Tickets available with credit card on Brown Paper Tickets (https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/535681).
About Tekla Cunningham, viola
Baroque violinist Tekla Cunningham delights in bringing the music of the baroque, classical and romantic eras to life with vivid and expressive historically informed performances.
Praised as "a consummate musician whose flowing solos and musical gestures are a joy to watch", her performances have been described as "ravishingly beautiful" and "stellar". Her greatest musical love is music of the baroque and chamber music of all stripes, though she can’t seem to quit Johannes Brahms. She is co-artistic director of Pacific MusicWorks in Seattle, artist-in-residence at the University of Washington and founder and director of the Whidbey Island Music Festival.
Tekla plays regularly as concertmaster and principal player with the American Bach Soloists. Her new release 'Stylus Phantasticus' with Pacific MusicWorks is delighting critics. "Tekla is a marvel…an endlessly songful bird". Early Music America describes the recording as "played with verve, the music presented here reaffirms the old notion that instrumental music can have the flair of any theatrical spectacle. … a stellar vessel for the boldest showmanship".
Tekla plays on a violin made by Sanctus Seraphin in Venice in 1746.
http://www.teklacunningham.com/