“Paul Moravec was the perfect choice for the project.” And so, Jonathan Yates – music director of the 2015 Music Mountain Summer Music Festival (Falls Village, CT) – offers some insight into Moravec’s new string quartet Dialogue.
“We’re absolutely thrilled to be bringing Paul’s Dialogue to life. As a rule, the Enso Quartet loves working on new music, as we’ve always felt it’s a hugely important part of enriching the already wonderful repertoire that we have. In this case, the new work is not only doing that, but also directly taking quotes from one of our favorite pieces from the standard repertoire (Beethoven’s Op.132) using a unique and stunning recording from the Gordon Quartet from the 1940s. It’s incredible to be a part of a piece that is new, but also touching two other eras (the 1820s and the 1940s)! Paul has an incredible gift for writing lyrically, and has done an amazing job of integrating the Beethoven and the new music. This is a thrilling project for us to be a part of, and we’re sure that the audience is going to love the piece!” — Richard Belcher, cello, Enso Quartet
Commissioned by Music Mountain for the Enso Quartet, Dialogue is an eight-minute work that premieres on July 19 and will be the inaugural performance in the festival’s new five-year commissioning project “Dialogues with the Past.” Yates continues. “We knew we had to find someone quite unique for this project, because it involved creating a conversation with the past — literally, a new work for string quartet to be intertwined with the beautiful old recordings of the Gordon Quartet, the founders of Music Mountain….”
Moravec describes his new work. “Dialogue takes as its point of departure two recorded excerpts from Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 15 (op. 132) in a 1946 performance by the Gordon Quartet at the Library of Congress. The Enso Quartet responds in live performance to the Gordons with my musical commentary on Beethoven’s mastery as well as on the mysterious kinship between artists separated by the passage of time but united in the service of an ideal.”
Yates adds, “It was [actually] the Enso Quartet who recommended commissioning Mr. Moravec… I knew from his work Vince & Jan: 1945 that he was interested in re-visiting musical material from earlier in the 20th century…There is a timelessness to Mr. Moravec’s style that I’ve always admired, and that I knew would be extremely effective in bringing the archival recordings back to life. There was still a further felicity. Mr. Moravec is a member of New York City’s Century Club and was acquainted through that institution with Music Mountain’s President Nick Gordon — who is the son of Jacques Gordon, the first violinist of the Gordon Quartet. So, here at Music Mountain, we eagerly look forward to seeing this musical family affair come to light!”
More Moravec in July: Tempest Fantasy — Moravec’s Pulitzer Prize-winning piece – is featured at Summerfest Kansas City with two performances on the 18th and 19th.