The Arts Club of Chicago and Spektral Quartet
present
the light that blurred the stars
MAY 12, 2022
SPEKTRAL QUARTET
Theo Espy & Clara Lyon, violins
Doyle Armbrust, viola Russell Rolen, cello
featuring Mary Bonhag, soprano
and Evan Premo, double-bass
Program
Evan PREMO String Quintet No. 1: My River Runs to Thee (2021)
I. Welcome Me rainfall and recharge
II. From Spotted Nooks groundwater, springs, and rivulets
III. River Runs rivers, sinuosity, and flood waters
IV. Blue Sea lakes, oceans and a prayer
poem by Emily Dickinson
Eliza BROWN the light that blurred the stars (2021)
Poetry by Susan Stewart
commissioned by Spektral Quartet and Scrag Mountain Music
I. Field In Winter
II. The Knot
III. Piano Music for a Silent Movie
IV. Man Dancing with a Baby
V. Cinder
~~~PAUSE~~~
Claude DEBUSSY String Quartet in G minor, Op.10
I. Animé et très décidé
II. Assez vif et bien rythmé
III. Andantino, doucement expressif
IV. Très modéré – En animant peu à peu –
Très mouvementé et avec passion
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Cycles often provide a source of reassurance and contentment, but what of those revolutions during which our position on the circle is unknowable – when our proximity to the end of an orbit could span anywhere from milliseconds to decades?
As we approach the concluding months of our final season together, we’re pleased to welcome back three of our earliest collaborators – composer Eliza Brown and Scrag Mountain Music co-founders Mary Bonhag (soprano) and Evan Premo (composer, double-bass) – for a presentation of three enchanting works that trace the cyclic nature of existence…and the stories we tell in an attempt to find our bearing.
Co-commissioned by Spektral and Scrag Mountain Music, Eliza Brown’s the light that blurred the stars is a poly-stylistic encounter between the quartet and soprano. A stirring suite that grows outward from the text, this setting of five poems by Susan Stewart circle the impermanence of human agency whether through the lens of a salacious wartime affair or the tableau of a father dancing with his infant, or even in the examination of the interdependence between a seed and a cinder. Imprinting a cycle of her own, Eliza allows the music to evaporate into the strains of her String Quartet No. 1 – one of the very first pieces by a living composer that Spektral performed, soon after its inception.
Similarly made possible by the solitude of life during a pandemic, Evan Premo’s String Quintet No. 1, “My River Runs to Thee” embraces the truth that cycles often imply change, incremental or grand. Beginning with raindrops and ultimately swelling out to the sea, a watershed is captured here in sound. But while the rain can be trusted to time and again serve as a natural recapitulation, new obstacles create new paths for the returning rivulets of water as they hasten into a river. As the piece nears its conclusion, the verse of Emily Dickenson introduces a witness into this landscape as the river sweeps to the sea. She hopes, fervently, that her own eventual exit and return to the source will be a contribution quite this exquisite.
If a shortlist were created of string quartets with which a western classical ensemble might discover (or recover) its bearings, surely Claude Debussy’s String Quartet in G minor, Op. 10 would make the cut. Like a weather-beaten guidepost bearing faint but familiar markings, this score is an irresistible invitation in an unfamiliar direction – at least the dominant direction of string quartet writing at the time. As a music critic, Debussy was not discreet about his desire for a less rules-heavy (translation: less Germanic) trajectory for contemporary music. The cycle had become claustrophobically predictable.
It is, perhaps, an astonishing claim about a piece that is near-ubiquitous on string quartet repertoire lists, but Debussy’s sole foray into the genre remains regenerative to both players and audiences. It seems to provide new, freshly-gessoed canvases for each ensemble that studies it. Situated on a program amongst illustrations as vivid as, “A knife could give up on patience” (the light that blurred the stars) or, “Blue sea, wilt thou welcome me?” (String Quartet No. 1, “My River Runs to Thee”), here the wordless Debussy offers Spektral the space in which to tell a story of its own.
-Doyle Armbrust
Spektral Quartet gratefully acknowledges the generosity of their community, including their board of directors, donors, audience members, music lovers of all stripes, and these fine institutions:
