CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Yefim Bronfman & Friends

Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
Sunday, May 4th, 2008 at 2:00 PM

Yefim Bronfman, Piano
Gil Shaham, Violin
Lynn Harrell, Cello
Emerson String Quartet
·· Eugene Drucker, Violin
·· Philip Setzer, Violin
·· Lawrence Dutton, Viola
·· David Finckel, Cello

MARC-ANDRÉ DALBAVIE Trio No. 1 for Violin, Cello, and Piano (World Premiere, Commissioned by The Carnegie Hall Corporation and the Aspen Music Festival and School)
SHOSTAKOVICH Piano Quintet in G Minor, Op. 57
JÖRG WIDMANN XI Humoresken (World Premiere, Commissioned by The Carnegie Hall Corporation)
TCHAIKOVSKY Piano Trio in A Minor, Op. 50

Perspectives: Yefim Bronfman

Perspectives concerts are made possible, in part, by a generous grant from The Alice Tully Foundation.

Carnegie Hall commissions in the 2007–2008 season are made possible, in part, by a grant from the New York State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.

Program Notes:

By Paul Griffiths

MARC-ANDRÉ DALBAVIE Trio No. 1 for Violin, Cello, and Piano
Born February 10, 1961, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France.

Tonight’s performance marks the world premiere of Dalbavie’s Trio No. 1, composed in 2008.

Since the success of his Violin Concerto of 1996, Dalbavie has been repeatedly asked for orchestral music, and has answered commissions from the Minnesota Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, Suntory Hall, and the Berliner Philharmoniker, among other organizations. He has, though, also found time for chamber pieces, including Axiom, a mixed quartet first performed in Zankel Hall by Emanuel Ax and colleagues four years ago.

Tonight’s trio is of the same type: vigorous music, sonorous engineering, working with music’s basic struts, in the shape of strongly emphasized notes, repeating rhythms, scales, and arpeggios. The piece plays continuously, since the process, once started, is unstoppable until it has completed itself. Piano and strings work against each other for much of the time, but also together. Indeed, opposition may turn out to be a sort of togetherness, for conflict breeds the energy that drives this collective endeavor on.

Friction starts at once, and leads the combatants in different directions: the piano into chords, the violin and cello into joint melody. One thing leads to another. The music passes through phases of rippling scales, of fibrillating melody, of intensely engaged counterpoint, and, more rarely, of slow lyricism. Harmonic centers and directions are strongly felt, though they may not be of the kind found in older music; chords come in many colors. Having reached unison on a trilled middle C at the end of what one might regard as the exposition, the three instruments find themselves drawn to D in the work’s second half. But an evident, inevitable goal may not always be greeted with equanimity.


DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH Piano Quintet in G Minor, Op. 57
Born September 25, 1906, in St. Petersburg; died August 9, 1975, in Moscow.

Composed in 1940, Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet in G Minor was first performed in October 1940, in Leningrad by the Glazunov Quartet and the composer at the piano. The first official performance of the Quintet took place at on November 23, 1940, at the Moscow Conservatory with the Beethoven Quartet and the composer at the piano. It received its US premiere at Carnegie Hall on April 29, 1941, with Vivian Rivkin, piano, and the Stuyvesant Quartet: Sylvan Shulman and Harry Glickman, violins; Louis Kievman, viola; and Alan Shulman, cello.

By the time he was 31, Shostakovich had written five symphonies, two full-length operas, three big ballet scores, and a large amount of theater and film music, but only two chamber pieces. The emphasis began to change in 1938, when his First Quartet was introduced to audiences in Leningrad and Moscow by the pre-eminent local quartets: the Glazunov and the Beethoven. Both groups pressed him for more, and he decided to write a piano quintet—for the reason, so he said, that then he would get to travel, in the role of fellow performer. He settled down to write the piece during the summer of 1940, which he spent at Luga, south of Leningrad, and in two months the composition was done. By the end of the year, the work had been played several times in Moscow and Leningrad, and recorded for the radio. Acclaim from Soviet audiences and professional colleagues was officially endorsed the following year with the award of a Stalin Prize, and the piece has remained one of Shostakovich’s most popular internationally.

It opens with a relatively short preparation: a principal melody declaimed by the piano, then the strings, and repeated after explorations of two quicker themes introduced by the viola. Interpreted as part of a Bachian form, this movement becomes the prelude to a slow fugue, with muted strings providing the exposition. Next comes a scherzo, with everyone together in hectic pursuit, and a haunting “intermezzo.” This third slow movement certainly intensifies the quintet’s claim on somber gravity; the finale, however, moves wittily, and ends with a smile.


JÖRG WIDMANN XI Humoresken
Born June 19, 1973, in Munich.

Tonight’s performance marks the world premiere of Widmann’s XI Humoresken, composed in 2007.

Now in his mid-30s, Widmann has come forward during the last decade as one of the leading German composers in the generation after Wolfgang Rihm—who was one of his teachers, following earlier studies with Hans Werner Henze. Like those masters, Widmann takes the lessons of 20th-century modernism but also understands the 19th-century German Romantic tradition as unfinished business. Tonight’s work is a clear case, with its echoes of Schumann. Widmann also follows his teachers in terms of productivity. His output already includes a successful opera (The Face in the Mirror), numerous orchestral works (including most recently a concerto for Christian Tetzlaff and Armonica, written for Pierre Boulez and the Vienna Philharmonic), five string quartets, and several major piano compositions, including a “sonata after Baudelaire,” Fleurs du mal.

His note on tonight’s new work reads as follows:
It was Robert Schumann who originally put the literary form of the humoresque into music. Both in his music, and later in that of Sibelius, the humoresque is not intended to have the full comic effect of a joke; it is, rather, a laconic, often deadly serious affair with just a hint of humor, and ironic in tone. With this in mind, the juxtaposition of the heading “Vanitas vanitatum” (King Solomon’s deeply held belief that all human endeavor is vain and empty) with the performance instruction “with humor” in Schumann’s Fünf Stücke im Volkston is less contradictory than at first glance.

Schumann’s spirit is invoked in my 11 humoresques for piano (which is easily recognizable from the titles of the pieces). The different forms of humor (or even its absence) find their various expressions in a great variety of musical forms, from miniatures to fully developed, complex piano pieces.

May the performer find the characteristic tone to each of the pieces and make it sound slightly dark—sometimes mockingly, occasionally droll, here and there with melancholy, yet always with humor and subtlety.

The big pieces are the first, third, fifth, and last. Interleaved with these are brief slow movements (II, VI, IX, X) and others more brilliant or capricious.


PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY Piano Trio in A Minor, Op. 50
Born May 7, 1840, in Kamsko-Votkinsk, Russia; died November 6, 1893, in St. Petersburg.

Composed in 1881–82, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio in A Minor was first performed on March 23, 1882, at the Moscow Conservatory by Sergey Taneyev, piano; Ivan Høímalý, violin; and Wilhelm Fitzenhagen, cello. It received its Carnegie Hall premiere on November 22, 1899, in Carnegie Lyceum (now Zankel Hall) with Samuel Franko, violin, Leo Schulz, cello, and Katherine Ruth Heyman, piano.

“To my ears the acoustic combination of piano with violin or cello solo has a complete incompatibility. In this sonority the instruments seem to repel one another, and I assure you that any kind of trio or sonata with violin or cello is absolute torture for me.”

Little more than a year after writing this overwhelmingly negative verdict, in response to his patroness Nadezhda von Meck’s request for a piano trio, Tchaikovsky was doing exactly what she had suggested. Perhaps, as sometimes happens, an almost allergic reaction, once expressed, gradually became a challenge. In any event, by Christmas 1881, spending the winter in Rome, Tchaikovsky had begun his trio, which he completed the following February. That done, however, he never returned to the genre, nor did he write a sonata for violin or cello. The trio remained his only composition of this kind, and his most formidable chamber work of any sort.

Tchaikovsky dedicated the trio “to the memory of a great artist,” having in mind Nikolai Rubinstein, who had died in March 1881 at the age of 45. Brother of the more celebrated Anton Rubinstein, Nikolai was an outstanding pianist and teacher, the founder of the Moscow Conservatory. He was also, though only five years older, one of Tchaikovsky’s mentors. Tchaikovsky as a young man had lodged with him, and Rubinstein had become a solid supporter of his colleague’s music—not least of the First Piano Concerto, which he had at first deemed unplayable.

On finishing the trio, Tchaikovsky sent it to his regular publisher, Pyotr Jurgenson, and there was a performance at the Moscow Conservatory on the anniversary of Nikolay Rubinstein’s death. Until shortly before, Tchaikovsky had been on the conservatory’s faculty, alongside Rubinstein, and the performance was given by colleagues of them both: the composer-pianist Sergey Taneyev, Tchaikovsky’s close pupil and follower; the Czech violinist Ivan Høímalý; and the German cellist Wilhelm Fitzenhagen, for whom Tchaikovsky had written his Variations on a Rococo Theme. The same three musicians gave the work its public première in Moscow later the same year.

The trio is in two parts: a big sonata movement, whose main themes are a lament and a beautiful strand of wistful melody, and a set of variations. Tchaikovsky is said to have composed the theme of the latter, remembering a summer picnic he had shared with Nikolay Rubinstein and other friends, when some serfs had stopped to entertain the gentry with folk songs. The variations on this theme include a scherzo (No. 3), a waltz (No. 6), a fugue (No. 8), and a mazurka (No. 10). The 12th variation, with its attached coda, forms a finale to the whole work and seems to be heading for an ebullient close—but this is not to be.

Copyright © 2008 by The Carnegie Hall Corporation Walter

Paul Griffiths is the author of numerous books on music, including The New Penguin Dictionary of Music and, most recently, A Concise History of Western Music (Cambridge University Press).

Yefim Bronfman, Piano
Yefim Bronfman is widely regarded as one of the most talented virtuoso pianists performing today. His commanding technique and exceptional lyrical gifts have won him consistent critical acclaim and enthusiastic audiences worldwide, whether for his solo recitals, his prestigious orchestral engagements, or his rapidly growing catalogue of recordings.

As a Perspectives artist at Carnegie Hall for the 2007–08 season, Mr. Bronfman will partner with some of the world’s greatest orchestras and conductors including the Vienna Philharmonic with Valery Gergiev, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra with Mariss Jansons, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra with James Levine, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Within the scope of the seven concerts he has curated, he will play repertoire ranging from solo piano, chamber, and orchestral by composers from Mozart to Prokofiev and Berg to Dalbavie. The fall begins with a tour of Japan with the Kirov Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev and a solo recital tour beginning during the visit to Japan, traversing the US to culminate in Carnegie Hall, and continuing in Vienna, Paris, and Berlin in the spring. With orchestra, he will appear with the Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco, New Jersey, and Toronto symphony orchestras and will conclude the season with the west coast premiere of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Piano Concerto with Salonen conducting to be recorded live for later CD release.

For the opening Gala of the New York Philharmonic in September 2006, Mr. Bronfman partnered with Emanuel Ax in Mozart’s Concerto for Two Pianos conducted by Lorin Maazel with live national television coverage. In winter 2007, he gave the world premiere of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Piano Concerto, written for him and commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, and participated in the Israel Philharmonic’s 70th birthday celebrations in concerts conducted by Zubin Mehta and Valery Gergiev. Other highlights of Mr. Bronfman’s 2006–07 season include appearances with the Boston, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Philadelphia, and National symphony orchestras; Los Angeles and Vienna philharmonics; Orchestre de Paris and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; widely acclaimed performances at the Salzburg Easter Festival with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Sir Simon Rattle; and a European tour with mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kozena.

Highlights of Mr. Bronfman’s 2005–06 season include a tour of Japan with the Bayerischer Rundfunk Orchestra and Mariss Jansons, a recital tour and recording for EMI with flutist Emmanuel Pahud, a tour of Germany with the Tönhalle Orchestra and David Zinman coinciding with the release of their complete Beethoven concerto discs, and concerts in the Far East with partners Gil Shaham and Truls Mørk. He made solo appearances with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic and Yuri Temirkanov for the Opening Night of Carnegie Hall, with the Russian National Orchestra under Vladimir Jurowski at Lincoln Center, and at the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg with the Kirov Orchestra and Valery Gergiev.

Other recent highlights include a duo recital tour of the US with pianist Emanuel Ax, a performance with the Kirov Orchestra and Valery Gergiev at Carnegie Hall, and concerts with the Vienna Philharmonic and Valery Gergiev in Japan and with Sir Charles Mackerras in Salzburg and Amsterdam. During the 2004–05 season, Mr. Bronfman served as Pianist in Residence with the Berliner Philharmoniker performing multiple orchestral and chamber music concerts with the orchestra’s members throughout the season. He recently completed recordings of all the Beethoven piano concertos as well as the Triple Concerto together with violinist Gil Shaham, cellist Truls Mørk, and the Tönhalle Orchestra Zürich under David Zinman for the Arte Nova/BMG label.

Mr. Bronfman appears regularly with such celebrated ensembles as the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, London’s Philharmonia, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the Orchestre de Paris, and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. He has worked with an equally illustrious group of conductors, including Daniel Barenboim, Herbert Blomstedt, Christoph von Dohnányi, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Valery Gergiev, Mariss Jansons, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Yuri Temirkanov, Franz Welser-Möst, and David Zinman. Summer engagements have regularly taken him to the Aspen, Bad Kissingen, Blossom, Hollywood Bowl, Lucerne, Mann Music Center, Mostly Mozart, Ravinia, Salzburg, Saratoga, Tanglewood, and Verbier festivals.

Mr. Bronfman has also given numerous solo recitals in the leading halls of North America, Europe, and the Far East, including acclaimed debuts at Carnegie Hall in 1989 and Avery Fisher Hall in 1993. In 1991 he gave a series of joint recitals with Isaac Stern in Russia, marking Mr. Bronfman’s first public performances there since his emigration to Israel at age 15. That same year he was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize, one of the highest honors given to American instrumentalists.

An exclusive Sony BMG recording artist, Mr. Bronfman has won widespread praise for his solo, chamber, and orchestral recordings. He won a Grammy Award in 1997 for his recording of the three Bartók piano concertos with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. His discography also includes the complete Prokofiev piano sonatas; all five of the Prokofiev piano concertos, nominated for both Grammy and Gramophone awards; Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 3; recital albums featuring Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition and Stravinsky’s Three Scenes from Petrouchka, and Tchaikovsky’s The Seasons paired with Balakirev’s Islamey; and the Tchaikovsky and Arensky Piano Trios with Cho-Liang Lin and Gary Hoffman.

His recordings with Isaac Stern include the Brahms violin sonatas from their aforementioned Russian tour, a cycle of the Mozart violin sonatas, and the Bartók violin sonatas. Coinciding with the release of the Fantasia 2000 soundtrack, Mr. Bronfman was featured on his own Shostakovich album, performing the two piano concertos with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting and the Piano Quintet. In 2002, Sony Classical released his two-piano recital (with Emanuel Ax) of works by Rachmaninoff, which was followed in March 2005 by their second recording of works by Brahms.

A devoted chamber music performer, Mr. Bronfman has collaborated with the Emerson, Cleveland, Guarneri, and Juilliard quartets, as well as the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He has also played chamber music with Yo-Yo Ma, Joshua Bell, Lynn Harrell, Shlomo Mintz, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Pinchas Zukerman, and many other artists.

Yefim Bronfman immigrated to Israel with his family in 1973, and made his international debut two years later with Zubin Mehta and the Montreal Symphony. He made his New York Philharmonic debut in May l978, his Washington recital debut in March l98l at the Kennedy Center, and his New York recital debut in January 1982 at the 92nd Street Y.

Mr. Bronfman was born in Tashkent, in the Soviet Union, on April 10, 1958. In Israel he studied with pianist Arie Vardi, head of the Rubin Academy of Music at Tel Aviv University. In the United States, he studied at The Juilliard School, Marlboro, and the Curtis Institute, and with Rudolf Firkušný, Leon Fleisher, and Rudolf Serkin.

Yefim Bronfman became an American citizen in July 1989.

Gil Shaham, Violin
Violinist Gil Shaham is internationally recognized by audiences and critics alike as one of today's most virtuosic and engaging classical artists. He is sought after throughout the world for concerto appearances with celebrated orchestras and conductors, as well as for recital and ensemble appearances on the great concert stages and at the most prestigious festivals.

In addition to his many orchestral engagements, Gil Shaham regularly tours in recital with pianist Akira Eguchi. He has the good fortune to enjoy musical collaboration with his family as well, including his wife, violinist Adele Anthony; his sister, pianist Orli Shaham; and his brother-in-law, conductor David Robertson. This season, his dream of bringing together friends and colleagues for chamber music comes to fruition in a tour of
Brahms programs, culminating in a series of three concerts at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall.

Among his more than two dozen concerto and solo CDs are a number of bestsellers, appearing on record charts in the US and abroad. These recordings have earned prestigious awards, including multiple Grammys, a Grand Prix du Disque, Diapason
d’Or, and Gramophone’s Editor’s Choice. Mr. Shaham’s most recent recordings have been produced for his own label, Canary Classics. They include The Fauré Album with Akira Eguchi and The Prokofiev Album with Orli Shaham.

Mr. Shaham was born in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, in 1971. He moved with his parents to Israel, where at the age of seven he began violin studies with Samuel Bernstein of the Rubin Academy of Music and was granted annual scholarships by the America-Israel Cultural Foundation. In 1981, while studying with Haim Taub in Jerusalem, he made debuts with the Jerusalem Symphony and the Israel Philharmonic. That same year
he began his studies with Dorothy DeLay and Jens Ellerman at Aspen. In 1982, after taking first prize in Israel’s Claremont Competition, Mr. Shaham became a scholarship student at Juilliard, where he has worked with Ms. DeLay and Hyo Kang. He has also studied at Columbia University.

Mr. Shaham was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1990. He plays the 1699 “Countess Polignac” Stradivarius. He lives in New York City with his wife, violinist Adele Anthony, and their two children.

Lynn Harrell, Cello
A consummate soloist, chamber musician, recitalist, conductor, and teacher, Lynn Harrell’s work throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia has placed him in the highest echelon of today’s performing artists.

Mr. Harrell is a frequent guest of many leading orchestras including Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Pittsburgh. In Europe he partners with the orchestras of London, Munich, and Berlin. He has also toured extensively to Australia, New Zealand, and Asia. In 1999, Mr. Harrell was featured in a three-week “Lynn Harrell Cello Festival” with the Hong Kong Philharmonic. He regularly collaborates with such noted conductors as Levine, Marriner, Masur, Mehta, Previn, Rattle, Slatkin, Temirkanov, Tilson Thomas, and Zinman.

In recent seasons Mr. Harrell has particularly enjoyed collaborating with violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and pianist André Previn. In 2004, the trio appeared with the New York Philharmonic performing the Beethoven Triple Concerto, Maestro Masur conducting.

An important part of Lynn Harrell’s life is summer music festivals, which include appearances at the Verbier, Aspen, Grand Tetons, and Amelia Island festivals.

In April 1994, Lynn Harrell appeared at the Vatican with the Royal Philharmonic before Pope John Paul II and the Chief Rabbi of Rome in a memorial concert for the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. That year, Mr. Harrell also appeared live at the Grammy Awards with Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman, performing an excerpt from their Grammy-nominated recording of the complete Beethoven string trios (Angel/EMI).

Highlights from a discography of more than 30 recordings include the complete Bach cello suites (London/Decca), the world-premiere recording of Victor Herbert’s Cello Concerto No. 1 with Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields (London/Decca), and the Donald Erb Concerto with Slatkin and the Saint Louis Symphony (New World). Together with Itzhak Perlman and Vladimir Ashkenazy, Mr. Harrell was awarded two Grammy awards—for the Tchaikovsky Piano Trio and for the complete Beethoven piano trios (both Angel/EMI). Most recently, Mr. Harrell recorded works by Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, and Prokofiev with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Gerard Schwarz conducting (Classico).

From 1985 to 1993, Mr. Harrell held the international chair for cello studies at the Royal Academy in London. From 1988 to 1992, he was also artistic director of L.A. Philharmonic Institute’s training program for orchestra, chamber music, and conducting. From 1993 to 1995, he was head of the Royal Academy in London. Since 2002, Mr. Harrell has taught cello at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music.

Lynn Harrell was born in New York to musician parents and studied at The Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute of Music. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the first Avery Fisher Award. Mr. Harrell plays a 1720 Montagnana. He makes his home in Santa Monica, California.

Emerson String Quartet
·· Eugene Drucker, Violin
·· Philip Setzer, Violin
·· Lawrence Dutton, Viola
·· David Finckel, Cello
Acclaimed for its insightful performances, dynamic artistry, and technical mastery, the Emerson String Quartet has amassed an impressive list of achievements: a brilliant series of recordings exclusively documented by Deutsche Grammophon since 1987; eight Grammy Awards including two for “Best Classical Album,” an unprecedented honor for a chamber music group; three Gramophone Magazine Awards; and performances of the complete cycles of Beethoven, Bartók, and Shostakovich quartets in major concert halls throughout the world. The ensemble is lauded globally as a string quartet that approaches both classical and contemporary repertoire with equal mastery and enthusiasm. For three decades, the group has collaborated with such artists as Emanuel Ax, Misha Dichter, Leon Fleisher, the Guarneri String Quartet, Thomas Hampson, Lynn Harrell, Barbara Bonney, Barbara Hendricks, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, Paul McCartney, Menahem Pressler, David Shifrin, Richard Stoltzman, and the late Mstislav Rostropovich, Isaac Stern, and Oscar Shumsky.

The 2007–08 season comprises over 80 worldwide engagements, with a particular focus on Europe. In late August and early September, the Quartet appears at the festivals of Gstaad, Salzburg, Schwarzenberg, Merano, Ascona, Copenhagen, Cologne, and Stockholm. The Quartet returns to Europe throughout the season for a three-concert series at London’s Wigmore Hall, another three-concert series at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, a two-concert series at Vienna’s Konzerthaus, its first appearance at Cité de la Musique in Paris, and a pair of concerts at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence, with additional concerts in Spain, Austria, France, the UK, Germany, and Italy. The Quartet’s North American tours include stops in San Francisco, Stanford, Portland, Dallas, Philadelphia, Ann Arbor, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, San Diego, Vancouver, Scottsdale, Savannah, and Houston. The Emerson continues its residency at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, now in its 28th sold-out season, and appears in New York with pianist Gilbert Kalish for Lincoln Center’s Great Performers and with pianist Yefim Bronfman at Carnegie Hall.

Throughout its history, the Emerson String Quartet has garnered an international reputation for groundbreaking chamber music projects and correlated recordings for Deutsche Grammophon. In 1988, the Quartet attracted national attention with the presentation of the six Bartók quartets in a single evening for its Carnegie Hall debut. The Emerson’s subsequent release of the cycle received the 1989 Grammy awards for “Best Classical Album” and “Best Chamber Music Performance” as well as Gramophone Magazine’s 1989 “Record of the Year Award”—the first time in the history of each award that a chamber music ensemble had ever received the top prize. Additional discs on the Deutsche Grammophon label include the recent Grammy Award–winning release, Intimate Voices, a recording of Grieg, Nielsen, and Sibelius string quartets, and the complete Mendelssohn string quartets and octet, which received 2005 Grammy awards for “Best Chamber Music Performance” and “Best Engineered Album, Classical.” The Emerson Quartet has also recorded Haydn’s Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross, Bach’s Art of Fugue, and The Haydn Project (a selection of seven quartets from various periods of Haydn’s career).

Formed in the bicentennial year of the US, the Emerson String Quartet took its name from the great American poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. Violinists Eugene Drucker and Philip Setzer alternate in the first chair position and are joined by violist Lawrence Dutton and cellist David Finckel. The Quartet is based in New York City.