Friday, Sunday, January 28, 30, 5pm
St Pauls Church, Cardo 6
$200, $400, $600 tickets
San Miguel audiences are in for a treat: the world-renowned Borromeo String Quartet— including founder and first violinist Nicholas Kitchen, a beloved repeat performer here as part of a violin/piano duo—will play for us on Friday and Sunday, January 28 and 30 at 5pm in St. Paul’s Church. Seating will be socially distanced at a maximum of 50% capacity, and standard Covid hygiene protocols will be in place.
THESE CONCERTS ARE SPONSORED BY REALTY SAN MIGUEL AND WE ARE PARTICULARLY GRATEFUL TO BROKER PHILIP HARDCASTLE AND ASSOCIATE BRYAN TOWNSEND FOR THEIR SUPPORT BOTH FOR THESE CONCERTS AND IN THEIR EXTENSIVE ADVERTISING WITH US.
Called “simply the best,” by the Boston Globe, the Borromeo String Quartet has been Ensemble-in-Residence at the New England Conservatory of Music for 25 years. It has also worked closely with or been in residence at the Library of Congress, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and other conservatories and universities across the US. The Quartet performs on major concert stages around the globe, including Carnegie Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, and Shanghai Oriental Arts Center.
Passionate about education, the Borromeo reaches out to encourage audiences of all ages—including in its acclaimed young people’s programs—to explore and hear the repertoire in new ways. The Quartet’s numerous awards include Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Career Grant and Chamber Music America’s Cleveland Quartet Award. The Chicago Tribune hails it, "not simply for its high technical polish and refined tone, but more importantly for the searching musical insights it brings."
On Friday, January 28 at 5pm we’ll first hear Beethoven’s Quartet in A major, the fifth of his first set of six quartets, completed when he was 30. It’s dedicated to Prince Lobkowitz, who had helped keep Beethoven in Vienna after a competing offer. Next up is String Quartet No. 2, Fantasy on "Swing Low Sweet Chariot,” by Adolphus Hailstork, whose music has been called “rhythmically engaging—even pulsating,” by critic James Reel.
The program’s second half features Brahms’ Quartet in A minor, the second of his first two quartets, finished when he was 40:10 years older than Beethoven with his first set of quartets. The perfectionist Brahms wrote, "You can't have any idea what it's like always to hear such a giant marching behind you!"
On Sunday, January 30, at 5pm, the program includes Debussy’s powerful, passionate, and poetic masterpiece, Quartet in G minor, written a year before his famous Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. The program’s second half is devoted to Beethoven’s favorite Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor—dedicated to Baron Joseph von Stutterheim, who had helped Beethoven’s nephew recover from a suicidal depression by accepting him as a cadet in his regiment. The program opens with “Strum,” a string quartet with guitar-like strumming by Jessie Montgomery, who says Strum salutes “American folk idioms and the spirit of dance and movement.”
Tickets for the concerts at St. Paul’s are $200, $400 and $600 pesos donation each, and are on sale through our website
Details of all Pro Musica’s concerts and Patron Membership are on our website www.promusicasma.org or contact us at promusicasma@aol.com.
