Jonathan Biss, piano Elias String Quartet

Friday, March 29 8pm
Herbst Theatre
Premium $62/$52/$38

Sara Bitlloch, violin
Donald Grant, violin
Martin Saving, viola
Marie Bitlloch, cello

Elias Quartet’s San Francisco Debut

TIMOTHY ANDRES: WORLD PREMIERE (piano and strings)
SCHUMANN: String Quartet in A minor Op. 41, No. 1; Piano Quartet, Op. 47
PURCELL: Fantasias (string quartet)

“Schumann composed his string quartets while undertaking a close study of Bach’s fugues with his wife,” says Biss. “But Purcell, with his mix of intricate counterpoint… Show more and formal freedom, is probably even closer to the spirit of the Opus 41 quartets. The music of Timothy Andres, a highly creative young American composer who is equally conversant with a wide variety of musical styles, is a demonstration of just how far and wide Schumann’s influence has reached.”

Jonathan Biss has appeared with the foremost orchestras of North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Widely regarded known not only for his artistry and poetic interpretations but also for his deep musical curiosity, Biss performs a diverse repertoire ranging from Mozart and Beethoven, through the Romantics to Janáček and Schoenberg as well as works by contemporary composers such as Gyorgy Kurtág and including commission from Leon Kirchner, Lewis Spratian and Bernard Rands. Biss has a noted recording career. His recordings include an album of Schubert sonatas and two short Kurtág pieces that was named by NPR Music as one of the best albums of the year. His recent albums for EMI won a Diapason d'Or de l'année award and an Edison Award. In January 2012, Onyx Classics released the first CD in a nine-year, nine-disc recording cycle of Beethoven's complete sonatas. Biss wrote about this recording project and also and about his relationship with Beethoven's music more generally for a 19,000-word essay called Beethoven’s Shadow that was published electronically as a Kindle Single and is available from Amazon online stores. Biss studied at Indiana University and at The Curtis Institute of Music, where he was appointed to the piano faculty in 2010. His blog featuring music ruminations, reflections about his life as a musician, and interviews can be found at www.jonathanbiss.com.

The Elias String Quartet take their name from Mendelssohn’s oratorio, Elijah, of which Elias is in its German form, and have quickly established themselves as one of the most intense and vibrant quartets of their generation. They perform around the world, collaborating with many different artists. The Quartet was formed in 1998 at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester where they worked closely with the late Dr. Christopher Rowland. They also spent a year studying at the Hochschule in Cologne with the Alban Berg quartet. Other mentors in the Quartet’s studies include Hugh Maguire, György Kurtág, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Henri Dutilleux and Rainer Schmidt.

The Quartet made its North American debut in March, 2012 to great critical acclaim. In addition to a sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall, they were praised in the Washington Post for their “shimmering beauty,” and the Philadelphia Inquirer proclaimed, “Few quartets at any stage of their evolution have this much personality.” Their concerts in Philadelphia and in Washington DC were with pianist Jonathan Biss; they will return to North America for concerts both with and without Mr. Biss in March, 2013.

The quartet has been chosen to participate in BBC Radio 3's prestigious New Generation Artists’ scheme, and they are the recipients of a 2010 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award. With the support of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust, the Elias Quartet are embarking on their Beethoven project: Learning and performing all Beethoven string quartets, with cycles starting in 2012–13 in various venues including Southampton, Bristol, Brighton, Tonbridge, London, and documenting their journey, learnings and findings on a dedicated website, www.thebeethovenproject.com.

They have performed alongside artists such as Michael Collins, Jonathan Biss, Simon Crawford-Phillips, Ralph Kirshbaum, Alice Neary, Ann Murray, Joan Rogers, Mark Padmore, Roger Vignoles, Michel Dalberto, Peter Cropper, Bernard Gregor-Smith, Ettore Causa, Timothy Boulton, Robin Ireland, Adrian Brendel, Anthony Marwood and with the Endellion, Jerusalem and Vertavo Quartets.

The Quartet received second prize and the Sidney Griller prize at the 9th London International String Quartet Competition in 2003 (as the Johnston String Quartet) and were finalists in the Paolo Borciani Competition in 2005. For four years they were resident String Quartet at Sheffield’s “Music in the Round” as part of Ensemble 360, taking over from the Lindsay Quartet. The Ensemble has released discs by Mozart, Beethoven and Spohr with Sanctuary Classics and Nimbus.

The Quartet’s latest recording of Haydn and Schumann quartets was released in spring 2012 on the Wigmore Live label. Their previous effort on that label, a disc of Mendelssohn, Mozart and Schubert, was given the BBC Music Magazine Newcomer Award in April 2010.

Their debut recording of Mendelssohn quartets for Sanctuary Classics also received wide acclaim, and their performance of the Op. 80 quartet was chosen as best recording on BBC Radio 3's Building a Library in September 2009. They have also released a disc of French harp music with harpist Sandrine Chatron for the French label Ambroisie and Goehr’s Piano Quintet with Daniel Becker for Meridian Records. In addition, they made a recording of Britten quartets, released by Sonimage.

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