Biography

Joel Link  -  violin
Brian Lee  -  violin
Julianne Lee  -  viola
Camden Shaw  -  cello

The two-time GRAMMY-nominated Dover Quartet is one of the most in-demand chamber ensembles in the world. This American ensemble came together at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia in 2008. Its members are graduates of that august institution and of Rice University in Houston. The name comes from the title of a work (Dover Beach) by Samuel Barber, who was closely associated with Curtis. The Dover Quartet was appointed to the faculty of the Curtis Institute as the Penelope P. Watkins ensemble-in-residence in 2020. BBC Music Magazine named the Dover Quartet one of the greatest string quartets of the last 100 years. Its awards include a stunning sweep of all prizes at the 2013 Banff International String Quartet Competition, grand and first prizes at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, and prizes at the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition. The Strad hailed the Dover’s recordings of the complete Beethoven quartets as “meticulously balanced, technically clean-as-a-whistle and intonationally immaculate.” Additional recordings include Encores, a recording of ten popular movements from the string quartet repertory, the three Schumann Quartets (nominated for a GRAMMY), Voices of Defiance: 1943, 1944, 1945, and an all-Mozart program. LMMC debut.

https://www.doverquartet.com/

Notes

Haydn’s six Op. 20 string quartets, composed in 1772, signify a new direction in quartet writing. No. 4 incorporates performance directions indicating heightened emotional involvement like affettuoso, scherzando and cantabile. There is a definite seriousness of purpose, as seen in the motivic development. Liberation of the cello part from servitude as a mere bass accompaniment, and the full participation of all four instruments as near-equals were further new developments This is manifest in the quartet’s opening measures, where the main theme is presented in rich, four-part harmony. The introduction of national elements into music was an additional forward-looking element of the Op. 20 quartets, as seen in the third movement of No. 4, designated alla zingarese (in the gypsy style).

Schubert’s output includes fourteen complete, extant string quartets. Eleven of these were written by a teenager. The plethora of early quartets owes its existence to the tradition of Hausmusik in Schubert’s family, wherein the composer (viola), two brothers (violins) and his father (cello) regularly played music together, including of course the talented youngster’s latest compositions. No. 11 is the last of Schubert’s teenage quartets (he was 19 when he wrote it). However, it is different from its predecessors, as biographer Brian Newbould explains: “It makes more demands on its players … Schubert was clearly reaching out beyond the limitations of domestic music-making, … and giving his expanding visions full rein, which implicitly requires the professional performance for which his later quartets were in fact written.”

Mendelssohn wrote his final string quartet just two months before his death at the early age of 38. It was his homage to his sister Fanny, who had died a few months previously at 41. The siblings had been extremely close all their lives, and Mendelssohn was devastated. Many believe his early death was brought on by this emotional blow. “If any work of Mendelssohn’s stares right over into the abyss,” writes musicologist Julian Haylock, “the F-minor Quartet is it.” There is much of Beethoven in this music. More so than any other work of Mendelssohn, this quartet radiates power, depth of emotion, concentrated intensity, and profound thought. The deeply personal Adagio movement is particularly evocative of Mendelssohn’s painfully anguished state of mind. The other movements are marked by nervous excitability, stabbing accents, and startling contrasts of volume and range.

Robert Markow