ST. PETERBURG QUARTET
WORKS OF PROKOFIEV, NADAREJSHVILI, AND BORODIN
Sunday evening, November 4, 2001, at 7:30 p.m.
Ames City Auditorium
The Ames Town & Gown Chamber Music Association celebrates the string quartet this season by featuring two such ensembles in its opening pair of concerts. Many classical music lovers revere the combination of two violins, viola, and cello as among the greatest forms of music, and the great composers likewise have chosen this medium to express their deepest musical thoughts.
On Sunday evening, November 4, the season's second string quartet, the St. Petersburg String Quartet, will perform a special program of works from their homeland. The St. Petersburg Quartet's rise to fame includes a Grammy nomination, "Best Record" honors in both Stereo Review and Gramophone, an opening night performance at "Mostly Mozart" at Lincoln Center, and hundreds of concerts on many of North America, Europe and Asia's most prestigious series and festivals. Formed in 1985 by graduates of the Leningrad Conservatory, the quartet, then known as "The Leningrad Quartet," won first prizes in the Vittorio Gui International Competition in Florence, and at the International Competition in Melbourne, Australia. In August 1991, their native city changed its name, and so did the Quartet.
Currently in residence at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the quartet specializes in the repertoire of their homeland, especially works of Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky, Borodin, Glazunov, and Georgian composer Zurab Nadarejshvili. A Sony Classical CD of Shostakovich quartets 3, 5, and 7 was one of five nominees for a 1996 Grammy award for Best Chamber Music Performance.
Critical reviews have been overwhelmingly enthusiastic. The New York Times writes, "Flawless ensemble . . .stylish, supple, openhearted performances." The Washington Post writes, "Astonishing sophistication and self-confidence...The St. Petersburg brought (Shostakovich's Quartet No. 8) to life in a controlled, lucid frenzy." The Cleveland Plain Dealer writes, "The playing ... cut to the emotional core of (Prokofiev's) music...in Tchaikovsky's Quartet No. 1...so rich were the sonorities that the four players sounded like a string symphony..."
Their much-anticipated recording of the Shostakovich cycle on the Hyperion label was featured in the San Franciso Chronicle's article on the greatest chamber recordings of all time and received a Five Star rating in BBC Music Magazine. Other recent and forthcoming releases include works by Prokofiev, Glazunov, and Nadarejshvili on Delos, and a Russian Romantic series on Dorian.
The program on November 4 includes Quartet No.1 by Zurab Nadarejshvili , Quartet No. 2 by Prokofiev, and Quartet No. 1 by Borodin.
The members of the St. Petersburg Quartet are Alla Aranovskaya and Ilya Teplyakov, violins; Aleksey Koptev, viola; and Leonid Shukaev, cello.
The 2001-2002 season of Ames Town & Gown is presented with support from the Ames Commission on the Arts.
