RIMSKY-KORSAKOV STRING QUARTET
Concert at St. Anna's Chapel, Newburyport
3:00 - 5:00 pm, Sunday March 8, 2015
166 High St, Newburyport, MA 01950
The Ballets Russes Arts Initiative is a presenting partner in this special performance by the Rimsky-Korsakov String Quartet at the recently restored St. Anna’s Chapel in Newburyport. This is the only public concert on the East Coast being given by the St. Petersburg-based ensemble during its March 2015 US tour. The performance honors the upcoming 175th anniversary of Tchaikovsky's birth (May 7th) and also features a collaboration with local clarinetist, Stephen Bates, a veteran member of Washington DC's Kennedy Center Orchestra.
Carl Maria von Weber Clarinet Quintet, Op. 34
with special guest Stephen Bates
Igor Stravinsky Three pieces for string quartet [1914]
Intermission
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky String Quartet No.3, Op 30
Reception
Co-presented by BRAI and St. Paul's Church, Newburyport
The Rimsky-Korsakov String Quartet, formed in 1939, is a monument of Russian musical history. Composed of four graduates from the prestigious St. Petersburg Conservatory, they regularly perform in the most reputable festivals in Russia, Germany, France, Italy, Malta, England, Switzerland and Finland. Their varied repertoire, ranging from Russian music of the 19th and early 20th centuries to contemporary composers, is enthusiastically enjoyed by a wide range of audiences.
The present members Mikhail Bondarev (violin), Ekaterina Belisova (violin), Alexei Popov (viola), Anton Andreev (cello) are steeped in the grand tradition of Russian music making, achieving organic and convincing interpretations of a diverse repertoire of masterworks, Russian classics, and contemporary masters. The Quartet especially champions Russian composers, with the core of their repertoire being the music of Borodin, Tchaikovsky, Glazunov, Taneyev and Stravinsky. They also perform lesser-known masterworks of Glinka, Alabiev, Rimsky-Korsakov, Gretchaninov, Miaskovsky and Mossolov, as well as music by contemporary and classical international composers. The Quartet regularly collaborates with outstanding musicians from around the world, and has made many professional sound recordings released on labels in Germany, the United States, France, and Russia. Read more.
Stephen Bates is a clarinetist and visual artist residing in Manchester, MA. Prior to moving to the North Shore, Stephen spent 36 years as a soloist with the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, in Washington DC, performing in 70 different opera productions, and accompanying many of the major ballet companies of the world when they were on tour in DC. In the course of his career he was also a co-founder and soloist of the Contemporary Music Forum (1973-80) and the National Chamber Orchestra (1980-90). Inspired by the experience of synaesthesia, the paintings of Kandinsky and the music of Richard Strauss, Stephen creates collages in watercolor, acrylic, and mixed media that employ extensive cutting and rhythmic interlacing of paper. Read more.
