10 | ACFNY | 12 | ANNIVERSARY CONCERT | ARON QUARTET
Celebrating 10 Years of the Austrian Cultural Forum New York
The ACFNY’s anniversary series continues with this concert by the renowned Austrian aron quartett, who will perform compositions by Austrian composers Erich Zeisl and Erich Wolfgang Korngold, and the world premiere of a new piece by Kurt Schwertsik.
PROGRAM
Erich Zeisl: 2nd String quartet d-minor (1953)
Kurt Schwertsik: commissiond work (world premiere – 2012); skizzen & entwürfe string quartet, Op. 25 (1974)
Erich Wolfgang Korngold: string quartet Nr. 3 D-major, Op. 34 (1945)
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
The aron quartett was founded in 1998 by Viennese musicians Ludwig Müller, Barna Kobori, Georg Hamann and Christophe Pantillon. The aron quartett’s intention to tackle classical repertoire and to devote itself to works by the second Viennese school led to an invitation to organize its own cycle of 18th, 19th and 20th century compositions as the quartet in residence at the Arnold Schoenberg Center in Vienna. A busy concert schedule has since taken the aron quartett through Europe, the United States, Mexico, and Japan, and to renowned festivals (Vienna Festival, International String Quartet Festival in Prague, Biennale di Venezia, Schoenberg Festival, “Klangbogen” Festival, Cervantino Festival, Kuhmo Festival, Stresa Festival etc.).
For more information, please visit: aronquartett.at
ABOUT THE COMPOSERS
A student of Karlheinz Stockhausen, Kurt Schwertsik (*1935) also studied composition with Joseph Marx and Karl Schiske, and horn at the Vienna Academy of Music. Renowned for creating the “Third Viennese School” and for helping to popularize contemporary classical music, Schwertsiks works are characterized by his particular exploration of tonality and his musical irony and humor.
Austrian-born Jewish American composer Erich Zeisl (1905 – 1959), published his first song at the age 14. He fled Austria in 1938, first to Paris, and then to New York. Though his career as a composer for films such as Lassie Come Home (1943), and The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) was quite successful, his heart lay elsewhere. In time, he was able to find academic appointments and composed a variety of chamber music, a piano concerto, a concerto for cello (written for Gregor Piatigorsky), and a setting for choir, soloists, and orchestra of Psalm 92 in Hebrew, which he entitled Requiem Ebraico (“Hebrew Requiem”), written in 1944-5 in memory of his father.
Austro-Hungarian composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897 – 1957) is considered one of the fathers of film music. Although his compositional style was out of vogue at the time he died his music has recently undergone a reevaluation and a gradual reawakening of interest. Korngold wrote his first orchestral score, the Schauspiel Ouverture when he was 14. His Sinfonietta appeared the following year, and his first two operas, Der Ring des Polykrates and Violanta, in 1914. He completed his opera Die tote Stadt, which became an international success, in 1920 at the age of 23. In 1938 Korngold won the Academy Award for his score for The Adventures of Robin Hood.
ABOUT THE SERIES
The year 2012 will mark the 10th anniversary of the opening of the Austrian Cultural Forum’s landmark midtown building, which was designed by the late Raimund Abraham, as what Herbert Muschamp of the New York Times called a “lucidly rational modern glass tower” that provides a “gateway into the tradition of modernity associated with Vienna at the turn of the last century.” A host of different events and series throughout the year will commemorate these past ten years on many different levels.
Ten concerts featuring newly commissioned works and dedications by contemporary composers will form the musical focal point of these special anniversary programs. While most of the featured composers are Austrian, the performers will be renowned Austrian and American contemporary ensembles, such as Klangforum, Talea Ensemble, ICE Ensemble, and the JACK Quartet.
The ten concerts, which will take place throughout the year, reflect the gateway to modernity associated with Austria in the ten years following this most recent turn of the century. Composers such as Bernhard Lang, Kurt Schwertsik, Manuela Kerer, and Johannes Maria Staud are at the forefront of cutting-edge creativity, and as such the ideal representatives of what contemporary Austrian music has to offer.
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