Philomusica Quartet To Perform “Transcendence and Mystery”

Chamber music expressing themes of “Transcendence and Mystery” will fill Schwan Concert Hall, on the campus of Wisconsin Lutheran College, when the resident Philomusica Quartet opens its season on Monday, Oct. 10.

Violist Nathan Hackett, cellist Adrien Zitoun, and violinists Jeanyi Kim and Alexander (Sascha) Mandl formed the quartet 15 years ago, and the programs they perform represent a fusion of the members’ recommendations regarding repertoire. The Oct. 10 concert, like others planned this season, will include a composition written by a living American composer.

The String Quartet in D Minor, Opus 76, No. 2, by Joseph Haydn (1732-1609) opens the program. Haydn wrote 68 string quartets over nearly five decades; the one Philomusica has programmed is part of the last complete cycle of quartets Haydn composed.  Throughout the first movement, the players trade a motif of descending fifth intervals, inspiring the quartet’s popular name “Fifths” and, according to Mandl, creating “a roadmap for listeners that is easy to grasp.” (Listeners can both hear and see that roadmap in a recording by the Cleveland Quartet.) Despite the prevailing minor keys in three of the four movements, much of the piece illustrates Haydn’s wit.  For example, sections of the third movement, in which the lower strings chase the upper strings by playing the same melody exactly one measure apart, bring a comic lightness.

Philomusica introduces prolific African-American composer Carlos Simon (b. 1986) in the performance of Elegy: A Cry from the Grave.  Described as a “composer, curator and activist,” Simon said he wrote Elegy in 2015 as “an artistic reflection dedicated to those who have been murdered wrongfully by an oppressive power; namely Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner and Michael Brown.” Throughout the short work, the violins and viola repeat a lyrical, descending motif, depicting the tragedy of these deaths, as the cello connects the narrative.

Franz Schubert (1797-1828) wrote his monumental String Quartet No. 15 in G major in 1826, as his health was declining just two years before his death at the age of 31. While Mandl acknowledges the closing work on the program will challenge both the players and the audience, he also promises that listeners will be richly rewarded. He describes the 50-minute piece, written in just 10 days, as “a war between earthly forces and the cosmic transcendence of a higher power.” Musicologist Kai Christiansen observes that “It is as if Schubert and his music became positively transfixed by the stark polarity between dark and light, an unresolved juxtaposition of agony and ecstasy… [T]he deeper listener discovers endless diversity exploiting gorgeous, resilient musical ideas in a constant state of transformation.”

“Transcendence and Mystery” will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 10, at Wisconsin Lutheran College’s Schwan Concert Hall, 8815 W. Wisconsin Ave. Tickets are available at the box office, 414-443-8702.