Guest cellist Calvin Kung joins the Spokane String Quartet for music from around the world at its next concert at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 8, at The Fox Theater.
All seats are general admission. Tickets are $25 for adults, $20 for seniors and free for under 18 and students with ID.
Kung, in his first year as assistant principal cello with the Spokane Symphony, will be guest cellist for today’s concert. A native of the Bay Area, Kung is a graduate of UCLA and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, with degrees from both institutions in cello performance. The program takes the audience to both sides of the Atlantic and include works by Grammy-winning composer Claudia Montero from Argentina, Pyotr Tchaikovsky from Russia and Ludwig van Beethoven from Germany.
About the concert:
Argentine Composer Claudia Montero (1962-2021) was born and raised in Buenos Aires, surrounded by the many styles of tango music and dance uniquely expressed in the different neighborhoods of this vibrant city. Tango emerged in late 19th century working-class, multicultural communities of Buenos Aires, and represents the cultural fusion of African rhythms, native Argentine dances, and European immigrant influence (introducing the accordion-like bandoneon and other instruments). The tango has evolved over time, and composers Astor Piazzolla and Montero have brought tango music styles from the bars and dance halls into the concert hall. Montero’s Cuarteto para Buenos Aires captures the spirit of the city by alternating tango rhythms with faster milonga rhythms. Her Cuarteto was awarded the 2016 Latin Grammy for “Best Contemporary Classical Composition”.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s (1840-1893) three string quartets were written during the early stages of his composing career while he was teaching harmony for 12 years at the newly founded Moscow Conservatory. When String Quartet No. 2 was composed in 1874, Tchaikovsky wrote: “I regard it as my best composition; no other piece has flowed out of me so simply and easily. I wrote it almost in one sitting.” The quartet utilizes the conventional four movement formal structure of a Classical period string quartet yet is filled with innovative and introspective Romantic era tendencies. Tchaikovsky would describe the emotional authenticity of the quartet emerging “spontaneously from the very depths of my soul.”
Ludwig van Beethoven’s (1770-1827) String Quartet No. 7 was the first of three Opus 59 string quartets commissioned by Count Andreas Razumovsky, Russian Ambassador to Vienna during the Napoleonic Wars. Beethoven composed the Opus 59 quartets during the peak of his “Heroic” middle period, which reflects the creative surge following his Heiligenstadt Testament resolve to rise above the despair of increasing deafness through composing the unrealized groundbreaking music still within. Like the earlier iconic masterpieces of his “Heroic” period (including the Eroica Symphony, Kreutzer Sonata, and Piano Concertos No. 3 and 4), the Opus 95 Razumovsky Quartets were vastly larger in scale, complexity, and emotional depth than anything previously composed in the genre. Beethoven’s revolutionary musical explorations provided the bridge from the Classic period to the Romantic era and beyond.