Westport, CT - The Westport Arts Center is delighted to present a chamber music performance by the esteemed Escher String Quartet on Sunday, February 28 at 3 p.m. at the Arts Center.
The Escher String Quartet has garnered rave critical reviews for its profound musical insights and rare tonal beauty. The Washington Post described the quartet as “One of the top young quartets before the public today…this is a group to watch,” and BBC Music Magazine stated, “They hold the listener spellbound from first to last.”
Russell Platt, the Westport Arts Center’s Curator for Chamber Music and The New Yorker music editor said of the quartet, "This dazzling and urbane New York ensemble is rapidlymoving into the top tier with an Avery Fisher Career Grant and appearances at Norway’s Risor Chamber Music Festival, California’s Music@Menlo, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.”
As part of the concert event, Platt will share his commentary on the quartet and their repertoire, providing chamber music newcomers and aficionados with a unique opportunity to learn more about the genre.
“Their program for us includes works by two great composers whom I haven't yet presented during my tenure—the deeply humane Mendelssohn, represented by his Andante and Scherzo, Op. 81, and the exciting Bartók, by his late-Romantic String Quartet No. 1—along with our mainstay Beethoven’s 'Razumovsky' Quartet No. 1 in F Major,” Platt added.
The quartet is composed of Adam Barnett-Hart and Aaron Boyd on violin, Pierre Lapointe on viola, and Brook Speltz on cello. The group takes its name from Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher, inspired by Escher’s method of interplay between individual components working together to form a whole.
Within months of its inception in 2005, the ensemble came to the attention of key musical figures worldwide. Championed by the Emerson Quartet, the Escher Quartet was invited by both Pinchas Zukerman and Itzhak Perlman to be Quartet in Residence at each artist’s summer festival: the Young Artists Programme at Canada’s National Arts Centre; and the Perlman Chamber Music Programme on Shelter Island, NY. The quartet has since collaborated with artists including David Finckel, Leon Fleischer, Wu Han, Lynn Harrell, Cho Liang Lin, Joshua Bell, Vilde Frang, David Shifrin and guitarist Jason Vieaux.
The Escher String Quartet concert is the fourth in the Westport Arts Center’s diverse Chamber music season schedule featuring both internationally renowned talent and local rising performers. Season ticket holders enjoy significant benefits. In addition to a cost savings of up to 15%, season ticket holders receive reserved preferred seating at all concerts, a free companion ticket to a concert and an opportunity to engage with the musicians immediately following the concerts.
Tickets for the concert are $25 for Westport Arts Center members and $30 for non-members. Escher String Quartet and season tickets are available on www.westportartscenter.org or by calling 203/222-7070. A limited number of discounted Senior concert tickets will be available for presale at the Westport Center for Senior Activities, 21 Imperial Avenue, Westport.