Aizuri Quartet: ALYSSA WEINBERG Parallels

Описание: Alyssa Weinberg
Parallels
Aizuri Quartet:
Miho Saegusa, violin
Zoë Martin-Doike, violin
Ayane Kozasa, viola
Karen Ouzounian, cello

This piece-commissioned by the Barnes Foundation for the Aizuri Quartet-is dedicated to the artist William Glackens, whose life and work I have found deeply inspiring. Upon delving into writings on his development as an artist, I was struck by the number of parallels and similarities to themes in my own life. A Philadelphia native, Glackens spent much of his artistic and professional life between New York and Paris, two cities that have profoundly influenced me and are at the core of my artistic inspiration. I was also particularly taken by Glackens' depictions of the crowded streets and parks of Manhattan. The idea of "the crowd," a personal interest first sparked by the poetry of Baudelaire, is an element that (whether consciously or subconsciously) weaves its way into the majority of my work and is certainly present in Parallels. This quartet focuses on and is rooted in the journeys and transformations of a single motive, and the filters through which we experience it. The opening musical idea allows itself to be spun through variation after variation, a tribute to the variety of styles that Glackens explored throughout his own life, and reflects the transformations and creative manipulations in which an artist can indulge while immersed in "the crowd."
—Alyssa Weinberg

Performed Friday May 8, 2015 in Field Concert Hall, Philadelphia, PA

https://www.curtis.edu