Goldmund Quartet: Europe’s Rising Stars

Chamber Music Northwest to Premiere Virtual Concert

Goldmund Quartet: Europe’s Rising Stars

March 20

Chamber Music Northwest (CMNW) will present a concert premiere featuring European sensation  Goldmund Quartet on Saturday, March 20 at 7 pm PT on CMNW.org, streaming through Saturday, March 27. This concert was recorded for CMNW at the library of the historic Polling Abbey in Bavaria, Germany. In connection with this concert, CMNW will host a live and free Musical Conversation with lecturer Michael Parloff on Tuesday, March 16 at 6 pm PT. Parloff will investigate the circumstances that influenced Puccini’s Chrysanthemums and Schubert’s Death and the Maiden, hosted by CMNW Co-Artistic Director Soovin Kim.

Hailed as one of the most exciting young string quartets in the world, the Goldmund Quartet’s exquisitely refined playing has been awarded prizes at major competitions such as the Wigmore, Melbourne, and ARD Munich. They are the Rising Stars of the European Concert Hall Organisation leading to debut recitals at the Philharmonie de Paris, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and the Vienna Konzerthaus. In this concert, hear the Goldmund perform dramatic chamber works written by Puccini, Strauss, and Schubert on their historic set of Stradivari instruments once owned by the great virtuoso Niccolò Paganini.

“The Goldmunds make a beautiful sound, elegant and transparent, with a real sense that these four players are friends both on and off the concert platform.”  – Gramophone

From CMNW Artistic Directors Gloria Chien and Soovin Kim: “Rarely has a string quartet made such an immediate impression on us as the Goldmund Quartet. Elegant joy bursts out of the first notes of their Haydn recording, and the ensemble’s striking interpretations of Schubert and Shostakovich are captivating. The Goldmund Quartet plays with unusual refinement, a unified conviction, and a seemingly limitless character range. We are thrilled by their beautiful performance for CMNW, and we are sure our audiences will be, too!”

KEY LINKS

Concert Video Trailer

Goldmund Quartet website

Goldmund Quartet Concert page

TICKETS

2021 All-Access Passes: $49
Single Concert Passes: $20
Musical Conversation series: Free
https://cmnw.org/concerts-tickets/2020-21-season

PROGRAM

PUCCINI Crisantemi, SC. 65

(1858-1924)

HAYDN String Quartet in F minor, Hob. III:35, Op. 20 No. 5

(1732-1809)

            Moderato

            Minuet - Trio

            Adagio

            Finale. Fuga a 2 soggetti

SCHUBERT String Quartet in D Minor, D. 810, Death and the Maiden

(1797-1828)

Allegro

Andante con moto

Scherzo: Allegro molto

Presto

• Program Notes by Frederick Noonan will be posted at CMNW.org
• Learn about Giacomo Puccini
• Commentary about Crisantemi
• Learn about Joseph Haydn
• Commentary about String Quartet in F minor, Hob. III:35, Op. 20 No. 5
• Learn about Franz Schubert
• Commentary about Death and the Maiden

ABOUT THE MUSICIANS

Goldmund Quartet

Florian Schötz, violin
Pinchas Adt, violin
Christoph Vandory, viola
Raphael Paratore, cello

Counted amongst the most exciting young string quartets, the Goldmund Quartet has with its exquisite playing and multi-faceted homogeneity given convincing interpretations of the great classical and modern works of the string quartet literature for more than a decade now. Their inwardness, unbelievably fine intonation, and phrasing worked out to the smallest detail inspire audiences worldwide.

Awarded at the prestigious 2018 International Wigmore Hall String Competition and winners of the 2018 Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition 2018, the Goldmund Quartet has been named Rising Stars of the 2019/20 season by the European Concert Hall Organisation as well as laureates of the Jürgen Ponto-Foundation. The Nippon Music Foundation has awarded the Quartet with a full set of Stradivari instruments.

Following their debut at Rheingau Music Festival in August 2019, the main focus of the 2019/20 season will be on the Rising Star recitals at many of the most prestigious halls around Europe such as the Philharmonie de Paris, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Bozar in Brussels, Konzerhuset Stockholm, and Wiener Konzerthaus. Other highlights this season include a tour of Sweden and Australia as well as appearances at Frankfurt Museumskonzerte, String Quartet Biennale Amsterdam, and the Hörtnagel series in Munich. Notable invitations recently have included Musikverein Graz, Boulez Saal Berlin and Marvao Festival, Fjord Classics Festival Norway and Schlern Music Festival.

MUSICAL CONVERSATION

Musical Meditations on Mortality – Exploring Chrysanthemums and Death and the Maiden
In this Musical Conversation, lecturer Michael Parloff will take listeners on a journey that investigates the circumstances that influenced the writing of Puccini’s Chrysanthemums and Schubert’s Death and the Maiden. For this presentation Parloff writes: In January of 1890, Giacomo Puccini was startled to learn of the untimely death of his friend, Prince Amadeo di Savoia. In response, he composed his deeply elegiac string quartet, Crisantemi, in a single night. Sixty-six years earlier, in 1824, the 27-year-old Franz Schubert confided to his artist friend Leopold Kupelweiser, “I feel myself to be the most unhappy and wretched creature in the world. Imagine a man whose health will never be right again.” As he contemplated his own untimely demise, Schubert wrote his defiant quartet masterpiece, Death and the Maiden.

Following Parloff’s presentation, Co-Artistic Director Soovin Kim will invite questions from the audience at home. The livestream event is on Tuesday, March 16 at 6 pm PT on CMNW.org, and can be viewed on-demand at CMNW.org.          

CMNW’s Musical Conversations are hosted by Co-Artistic Director Soovin Kim the week preceding each concert premiere, the Musical Conversation audience enrichment series is free and can be accessed on the CMNW website.

About Michael Parloff        
Principal Flutist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra from 1977 until his retirement in 2008, Michael Parloff has been heard regularly as a recitalist, chamber musician, and concerto soloist throughout North America, Europe, and Japan. As a lecturer, conductor, and teacher, Parloff has appeared at major conservatories and university music schools in the United States and abroad. He has been a faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music since 1985. Parloff is the founder and Artistic Director of Parlance Chamber Concerts.
Learn more about Michael Parloff.

ABOUT CHAMBER MUSIC NORTHWEST 

Now in its 51st season, Chamber Music Northwest shares the richness and diversity of chamber music with more than 50,000 people through 80 events annually, including our Summer Festival of outstanding concerts, illuminating outreach activities, educational programs supporting young musicians, and innovative collaborations across the Portland Metro region.

Chamber Music Northwest’s mission is to inspire our community through concerts and events celebrating the richness and diversity of chamber music, performed by artists of the highest caliber, presenting our community with exceptional opportunities for enjoyment, education, and reflection. Chamber Music Northwest is led by Artistic Directors Gloria Chien and Soovin Kim, and Executive Director Peter Bilotta.

As one of the nation’s leading chamber music presenters, Chamber Music Northwest brings to our community the world’s greatest musicians and composers, from rising-star members of our Protégé Project and exceptional local musicians to world-renowned artists that include Grammy Award winners, Avery Fisher Prize honorees, and MacArthur ‘Genius Award’ recipients. Together they collaborate to perform the expansive 500-year chamber music repertoire, ranging from beloved classics and hidden masterpieces to contemporary works and less conventional projects. 

Chamber Music Northwest is an international leader in celebrating chamber music’s enduring relevance and diversity, with more than 100 commissions and premieres of new works as well as its Protégé Project, which cultivates the next generation of dynamic chamber music performers by supporting exceptional, early-career chamber musicians and composers in their professional development.                       

CHAMBER MUSIC NORTHWEST WEBSITE