Dec. 10: Telegraph Quartet in New Worlds with Soprano Lauren Snouffer Presented by DACAMERA – Performing the Music of Beethoven, Weinberg, and Schoenberg
Telegraph Quartet in New Worlds
with Soprano Lauren Snouffer
Presented by DACAMERA
Performing the Music of Ludwig van Beethoven,
Mieczysław Weinberg, and Arnold Schoenberg
Tuesday, December 10, 2024 at 7:30pm
Menil Collection | 1533 Sul Ross St. | Houston, TX
Tickets and More information
“soulfulness, tonal beauty and intelligent attention to detail ... an incredibly valuable addition to the cultural landscape.”
– San Francisco Chronicle
Houston, TX – On Tuesday, December 10, 2024 at 7:30pm, the Telegraph Quartet (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello), described by The Strad as having “precise tuning, textural variety and impassioned communication,” will be presented by DACAMERA at The Menil Collection (1533 Sul Ross St.) performing a concert entitled New Worlds which include Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 74, “Harp”; Mieczysław Weinberg’s String Quartet No. 6 in E Minor, Op. 35; and Arnold Schoenberg’s String Quartet No. 2 in F-sharp Minor, Op. 10 with soprano Lauren Snouffer.
The Telegraph Quartet formed in 2013 with an equal passion for standard and contemporary chamber music repertoire. Described by the San Francisco Chronicle as “an incredibly valuable addition to the cultural landscape” and “powerfully adept… with a combination of brilliance and subtlety,” the Telegraph Quartet was awarded the prestigious 2016 Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award and the Grand Prize at the 2014 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.
New Worlds features three great works created in turbulent times: Beethoven’s “Harp” quartet, composed during a French attack on Vienna, is actually one of his most melodious works, despite it being written during the composer’s 11-year-long struggle with hearing loss, which inevitably kept him from fully experiencing this work. During World War II Mieczysław Weinberg fled his homeland of Poland and having failed to convince his family to come with him, almost all of them would be murdered in the concentration camps. His String Quartet No. 6 contains an innocent mundanity that erupts throughout the work into desperation, sorrow, and tragic indignation as he dealt with the ramifications of his exile and learned to live warily in his newfound home of the Soviet Union. The work, which was banned in Stalin’s USSR and was never performed in Weinberg’s lifetime, is now being championed by the Telegraph Quartet. Schoenberg’s second string quartet looks back on the overly ripe German romanticism of the past, while staring unflinchingly into the new sound worlds of the future. He decided to include a soprano as a vessel for the Stefan George text, introducing a vocal line in the last two movements and ushering in “the air of another planet.”
The Telegraph Quartet’s latest album, 20th Century Vantage Points: Divergent Paths, was released in 2023 on Azica Records. The first in the Telegraph’s three-album series focused on string quartets of the first half of the 20th century, Divergent Paths explores the bewildering and unbridled creativity of the period through the music of Arnold Schoenberg and Maurice Ravel, whose music on this album weaves threads of great contrast and surprising similarity. The album has been met with critical acclaim, with The New York Times reporting, “[I]n the Schoenberg, they achieve something truly special, meticulously guiding its often wayward progress. At times Schoenberg makes the four strings sound almost orchestral, but the Telegraph players can also make his contrapuntal tangles radiantly clear. Every minute of their account sounds gripping and purposeful, which is one of the highest compliments you can pay the piece.”
More about Telegraph Quartet: The Telegraph Quartet has performed in New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Chamber Masters Series, and at festivals including the Chautauqua Institute, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, and the Emilia Romagna Festival. They have collaborated with pianists Leon Fleisher and Simone Dinnerstein; cellists Norman Fischer and Bonnie Hampton; violinist Ian Swensen; St. Lawrence Quartet, and the Henschel Quartett. A fervent champion of 20th- and 21st-century repertoire, the Telegraph Quartet has premiered works by John Harbison, Osvaldo Golijov, Robert Sirota, and Richard Festinger. In 2018 the Quartet released its debut album, Into the Light, featuring works by Anton Webern, Benjamin Britten, and Leon Kirchner on the Centaur label. The Telegraph Quartet released its new album, 20th Century Vantage Points: Divergent Paths––which features Ravel’s renowned quartet and Schoenberg’s first quartet––on August 25 via Azica Records.
The Telegraph Quartet begins a residency at The University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance in fall 2024. From 2017-2024, the Telegraph was quartet-in-residence at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. In addition to giving regular faculty performances, the ensemble gave master classes abroad at the Taipei National University of the Arts, National Taiwan Normal University, and in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Telegraph has also served as artists-in-residence at the Interlochen Adult Chamber Music Camp, SoCal Chamber Music Workshop, and Crowden Music Center Chamber Music Workshop. In November 2020, the Telegraph Quartet launched ChamberFEAST!, a chamber music workshop in Taiwan and in fall 2020, Telegraph launched an online video project called TeleLab, in which the ensemble collectively breaks down the components of a movement from various works for quartet.
For more information, visit www.telegraphquartet.com.
About Lauren Snouffer: Recognized for her unique artistic curiosity in world-class performances spanning the music of Claudio Monteverdi and Georg Frideric Handel through to Missy Mazzoli and Sir George Benjamin, American Lauren Snouffer is celebrated as one of the most versatile and respected sopranos on the international stage. Lauren Snouffer celebrates three high profile role debuts this season: the title role of Debussy’s hallowed Pelléas et Mélisande in a new production at The Dallas Opera directed by Jetske Mijnssen led by Ludovic Morlot, Bess McNeil in Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s adaptation of Lars von Trier’s acclaimed feature film Breaking the Waves at the Houston Grand Opera in a production by Tom Morris with Patrick Summers on the podium, and the title role of Handel’s Semele at The Atlanta Opera in a new production staged by General and Artistic Director Tomer Zvulun under the baton of Christine Brandes. No less dynamic is the soprano’s concert calendar of 2024-25, which includes debuts at the at the Salzburg Mozartwoche in a program of Haydn and Mozart conducted by Roberto González-Monjas and with the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra and conductor Elena Schwarz in performances of Hans Abrahamsen’s Let me tell you paired with Mahler’s Fourth Symphony. Further concert performances include Schoenberg’s Second String Quartet with the Telegraph Quartet under the auspices of DACAMERA, Handel’s Alceste with Peter Whelan and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and Messiah under Patrick Dupré Quigley leading Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and with Scott Hanoian and the Ann Arbor Symphony. Snouffer is an alumna of Houston Grand Opera’s Butler Studio and a graduate of Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music.
For Calendar Editors:
Concert details:
Who: Telegraph Quartet with Soprano Lauren Snouffer
Presented by DACAMERA
What: New Worlds, featuring the music of Ludwig van Beethoven, Arnold Schoenberg, and Mieczysław Weinberg
When: Tuesday, December 10, 2024 at 7:30pm
Where: Menil Collection, 1533 Sul Ross St., Houston, TX 77006
Tickets and information: www.dacamera.com/2024-2025-season-concerts/telegraph-quartet-new-worlds/
Description: The award-winning Telegraph Quartet, a group described by The Strad as having "precise tuning, textural variety and impassioned communication,” is presented by DACAMERA on Tuesday, December 10, 2024 at 7:30 p.m. The ensemble will perform a concert program titled New Worlds, featuring Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 74, “Harp” and Mieczysław Weinberg’s String Quartet No. 6 in E Minor, Op. 35 –– two works shaped by drastic, heart-wrenching, and permanent changes to the composers’ personal lives, as well as Arnold Schoenberg’s musically innovative String No. 2 in F-sharp Minor, Op. 10 with solo by soprano Lauren Snouffer.