“Few young American ensembles are as exciting and accomplished as the Dover Quartet.”— The New Yorker
Named one of the greatest string quartets of the last 100 years by BBC Music Magazine, the two-time Grammy-nominated Dover Quartet is one of the world’s most in-demand chamber ensembles. The group makes its Athens debut Wednesday, Jan. 17, at 7:30 p.m. in Hodgson Concert Hall. Their program includes a quartet by Black American composer Florence Price, along with selections from two of the world’s finest composers of string quartets, Haydn and Shostakovich.
The Dover Quartet is the Penelope P. Watkins Ensemble in Residence at the Curtis Institute of Music and holds additional residencies at the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University and the Walton Arts Center’s Artosphere festival. The group’s awards include a stunning sweep of all prizes at the 2013 Banff International String Quartet Competition, grand and first prizes at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, and prizes at the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition. Its honors include the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, Chamber Music America’s Cleveland Quartet Award, and Lincoln Center’s Hunt Family Award.
The Dover Quartet draws from the lineage of the distinguished Guarneri, Cleveland, and Vermeer quartets. Its members studied at the Curtis Institute of Music, Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, the New England Conservatory, and the Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris. They were mentored extensively by Shmuel Ashkenasi, James Dunham, Norman Fischer, Kenneth Goldsmith, Joseph Silverstein, Arnold Steinhardt, Michael Tree, and Peter Wiley. The Dover Quartet was formed at Curtis in 2008; its name pays tribute to Dover Beach by fellow Curtis alumnus Samuel Barber.
The Dover Quartet’s 2023-24 season includes a North American tour with Leif Ove Andsnes, performances with Haochen Zhang and David Shifrin, and a tour to Europe and Israel. A sought-after ensemble, recent collaborators include Emanuel Ax, Inon Barnaton, Ray Chen, the Escher String Quartet, Bridget Kibbey, Anthony McGill, Edgar Meyer, the Pavel Haas Quartet, Roomful of Teeth, and Davóne Tines.
The Dover Quartet’s highly acclaimed three-volume recording, Beethoven Complete String Quartets (Cedille Records), was hailed as “meticulously balanced, technically clean-as-a-whistle and intonationally immaculate” (The Strad). The quartet’s discography also includes Encores (Brooklyn Classical), a recording of 10 popular movements from the string quartet repertoire; The Schumann Quartets (Azica Records), which was nominated for a Grammy for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance; Voices of Defiance: 1943, 1944, 1945 (Cedille Records); and an all-Mozart debut recording (Cedille Records), featuring the late Michael Tree — long-time violist of the Guarneri Quartet. Voices of Defiance, which explores works written during World War II by Viktor Ullman, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Simon Laks, was lauded as “undoubtedly one of the most compelling discs released this year” (The Wall Street Journal).
The Haydn quartet on the Hodgson Concert Hall program “takes its nickname, Der Reiter (The Rider), from its last movement,” writes program annotator Laurie Shulman. “Listeners will have little trouble discerning the horse’s rhythmic, determined gait — until the joyous second theme. At this point it is difficult to refrain from dancing, as Haydn’s irrepressible sense of humor starts to dominate. The working out of the conflict between the gallop and the dance concludes this delicious movement, and the quartet.”
Price’s lyrical and probably unfinished two-movement quartet follows the 2022 Hodgson Concert Hall performance of her piano concerto by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and soloist Michelle Cann. On March 24, another of BBC Music’s Top 10 string quartets, the Takács Quartet, plays Price’s piano quintet in Hodgson Concert Hall.
“Alternately sardonic, spooky, and savage, the Ninth Quartet still surprises with consistency of musical content,” Shulman writes of the Shostakovich work that concludes the Dover Quartet’s program.
PROGRAM
HAYDN: String Quartet, Op. 74, No. 3, “Rider”
PRICE: String Quartet No. 1 in G Major
SHOSTAKOVICH: String Quartet No. 9 in E-flat Major, Op. 117
PERFORMANCE TALK
Join us for a free pre-performance talk by Theresa Chafin in Ramsey Concert Hall from 6:45-7:15 pm.
SUPPORTED BY
Drs. Stephen E. and Margaret Cramer
Dr. Janice Simon
THREE WAYS TO ORDER TICKETS
- Purchase tickets online 24/7 online here.
- Call the Performing Arts Center Box Office at (706) 542-4400, Mon.-Fri., 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
- Visit the UGA Performing Arts Center Box Office, Mon.-Fri., 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (5 minute parking is available in the drop off circle at the Performing Arts Center for purchasing or picking up tickets.)
Photo: Roy Cox