ECM New Series to release label debut from the “intense, virtuosic, utterly assured” (Boston Globe) Parker Quartet with fellow GRAMMY®-winning artist

ECM New Series to release label debut from the “intense, virtuosic, utterly assured” (Boston Globe) Parker Quartet with fellow GRAMMY^®-winning artist and mentor violist Kim Kashkashian

 

Out October 22, 2021, the album includes works by György Kurtág and Antonín Dvorák

 

Boston, MA – September 7, 2021 – Cited by The Washington Post for their “exceptional virtuosity and imaginative interpretation,” the GRAMMY® Award-winning Parker Quartet make their label debut with a new album on the ECM New Series to be released on October 22, 2021. The quartet, comprised of violinists Daniel Chong and Ken Hamao, violist  Jessica Bodner, and cellist Kee-Hyun Kim perform Six moments musicaux and Officium breve by Hungarian composer György Kurtág, and are joined by fellow GRAMMY^®-winner violist Kim Kashkashian – one of the quartet’s early mentors – for Antonin Dvorák’s String Quintet op. 97.

 

The program is anchored by Dvorák’s vibrant String Quintet No. 3, framed by two of György Kurtág’s concentrated, meticulously shaped works. The Parker Quartet’s insights into Kurtág’s soundworld have been developed through extensive work with the Hungarian composer. Featured on the album are the final Six moments musicaux completed in 2005 and the Officium breve in memoriam Andreae Szervánszky circa 1989.

 

“This is by far the most personal recording we have made,” says violinist Daniel Chong. “In 2005, as young music conservatory students, we decided to enter the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition. Little did we know that the commissioned work for the competition would be written by György Kurtág. One of our mentors at the time, violist Kim Kashkashian, was a well-known advocate of his music and a close friend. With her guidance we deciphered and explored this incredible new string quartet, Six moments musicaux. Although we were fortunate to walk away with the top prize, it was our exposure to this profound music and language that has given us endless inspiration.  From the moment we received a copy of the handwritten score in 2005 until now, it is probably the work we have played more than any other — a work we have admired and grown with over the last 15 years and one that will forever be connected to the quartet’s roots.” 

 

As its name suggests, each of the short, themed movements in the Six moments musicaux provides a distinct image, though they all belong together as one. Fifteen segments comprise the Officium breve in memoriam Andreae Szervánszky, which uses as source material the music of the dedicatee Szervánszky (1911-77) – whose own Six Orchestral Pieces (1959) introduced the possibility of serial composition to a new generation of Hungarian composers – and that of Anton Webern.

 

Between the two Kurtág quartets is Dvorák’s String Quintet No. 3, performed by the Parker Quartet together with Kim Kashkashian. Composed during the five summer weeks of 1893 that the Czech master spent with his family in bucolic Spillville, Iowa, this “viola quintet” bears a stylistic resemblance to his New World Symphony, written earlier that same year.  The quintet includes traits typical of Dvorák’s American oeuvre – the pentatonic scale and syncopated rhythms – and also incorporates attributes of Black spirituals introduced by Dvorák’s pupil Harry Burleigh, and Native American dance rhythms observed during Dvorák’s time in the United States.

 

The Parker Quartet will perform works by Kurtág as part of their 2021-22 North American season that includes stops in Norfolk, Williamsburg, New York, Baltimore, Annapolis, San Antonio, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Toronto, and Colorado. The Parker Quartet’s full performance calendar can be found HERE.

 

If you follow the link https://www.ecmrecords.com/preview and type in the password ecm2021_2649 at the bottom of the page, you’ll find all information on the album and the music is available to stream.

 

György Kurtág: Moments Musicaux & Officium breve

Antonín Dvorák: String Quintet op. 97

Parker Quartet, Kim Kashkashian

 

Parker Quartet   

Daniel Chong, Violin

Ken Hamao, Violin

Jessica Bodner, Viola

Kee-Hyun Kim, Violoncello

 

György Kurtág (b. 1926)

Six moments musicaux op.44 (2005)

 

Antonín Dvorák (1841-1904)

String Quintet No.3 in Eb major op.97

Parker Quartet, Kim Kashkashian

 

György Kurtág

Officium breve in memoriam Andreae Szervánszky, op.28

 

About Parker Quartet

Inspiring performances, luminous sound, and exceptional musicianship are the hallmarks of the GRAMMY® Award-winning Parker Quartet. Renowned for its dynamic interpretations and polished, expansive colors, the group has rapidly distinguished itself as one of the preeminent ensembles of its generation, dedicated purely to the sound and depth of their music. The Quartet has appeared at the world’s most important venues since its founding in 2002.

 

The Parker Quartet serve as faculty members of Harvard University’s Department of Music in the group’s role as Blodgett Artists-in-Residence. Recent seasons have included performances and residencies around the United States and Europe, including at the Minnesota Beethoven Festival, the Schubert Club, National Gallery, Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Banff, Wigmore Hall, Monte Carlo Spring Festival, Yerevan Perspectives Festival, the University of Iowa, the University of Chicago, the University of South Carolina, Skidmore College, and Kansas City’s Friends of Chamber Music.

 

The Quartet has been influential in projects ranging from the premiere of a new octet by Zosha di Castri alongside the JACK Quartet at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity; to the premiere of Augusta Read Thomas’s Helix Spirals, a piece inspired by the Meselson-Stahl DNA replication discovery; to the “Schubert Effect,” in collaboration with pianist Shai Wosner at the 92nd Street Y. Other recent highlights include appearances at Carnegie Hall, the Library of Congress, the Slee Series in Buffalo, and New York’s Lincoln Center Great Performers series. The Quartet also continues to be a strong supporter of their friend and collaborator Kim Kashkashian’s project Music for Food by participating in concerts throughout the United States for the benefit of various food banks and shelters.

 

The Parker Quartet recorded a disc of three Beethoven quartets under the auspices of the Monte Carlo Festival Printemps des Arts released in 2019. Their recording of Mendelssohn’s Quartets Op. 44, Nos. 1 and 3, was widely lauded by the international press, and their debut commercial recording of Bartók’s String Quartets Nos. 2 and 5 for Zig-Zag Territoires won praise from Gramophone: “The Parkers’ Bartók spins the illusion of spontaneous improvisation… they have absorbed the language; they have the confidence to play freely with the music and the instinct to bring it off.” Their Naxos recording of György Ligeti’s complete works for string quartet won the 2011 Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance (the last string quartet to win this category).

 

Other recent collaborations include those with acclaimed artists like violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg; pianists Anne-Marie McDermott, Orion Weiss, Vijay Iyer, and Shai Wosner; members of the Silk Road Ensemble; Kikuei Ikeda of the Tokyo String Quartet; clarinetist and composer Jörg Widmann; and clarinetists Anthony McGill and Charles Neidich.

 

Founded and currently based in Boston, the Parker Quartet’s numerous honors include winning the Concert Artists Guild Competition, the Grand Prix and Mozart Prize at France’s Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition, and Chamber Music America’s prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award. Now Blodgett Artists-in-Residence at Harvard University’s Department of Music, and also in-residence at the UofSC School of Music, the Quartet’s numerous residencies have included serving as Artists-in-Residence at the University of St. Thomas (2012–2014), Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Minnesota (2011– 2012), Quartet-in-Residence with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (2008-2010), and as the first-ever Artists-in-Residence with Minnesota Public Radio (2009-2010).

 

The Parker Quartet’s members hold graduate degrees in performance and chamber music from the New England Conservatory of Music and the Juilliard School, and the Quartet was part of the New England Conservatory’s prestigious Professional String Quartet Training Program from 2006–2008. Some of their most influential mentors include the original members of the Cleveland Quartet as well as Kim Kashkashian, György Kurtág, and Rainer Schmidt.

 

About Kim Kashkashian

Kim Kashkashian, one of the pre-eminent artists of ECM New Series, was born in Detroit, Michigan.  She studied at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore with Walter Trampler and Karen Tuttle, and worked intensively with mentor Felix Galimir at the Marlboro Music Festival. A committed proponent of contemporary music, she has enjoyed creative relationships with György Kurtág, Krzysztof Penderecki, Alfred Schnittke, Giya Kancheli, and Arvo Pärt, and commissioned works from Peter Eötvös, Ken Ueno, Thomas Larcher, Lera Auerbach, and Tigran Mansurian.
 
Kashkashian’s 30-year relationship with ECM Records has produced an extensive discography that includes an award-winning recording of the Brahms sonatas, the complete Hindemith sonatas, the concertos of Bartók, Eötvös, Kurtág, Berio, Kancheli, Olivero, and Mansurian, the Bach Sonatas for viola da gamba (with Keith Jarrett), “Hayren” (music of Tigran Mansurian and Komitas), and “Asturiana”, songs from Spain and Argentina.
 
The album “Kurtág/Ligeti: Music for Viola” won the 2013 GRAMMY® Award for Best Classical Instrumental Album and in the same year Kashkashian was awarded the George Peabody Medal for her exceptional contribution to music in America.

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