February 2012
1 post
Tribute to the Memory of Rudolf Firkušný (Feb. 11,...
By Philip Setzer
He looked like a movie star, perfectly handsome and so elegant in every way. As a kid growing up in Cleveland with parents in the orchestra there under the great George Szell, I heard Rudolf Firkušný play almost every season. I remember several Mozart and Beethoven concerti, Dvořák, Janáček and Martinů, always played with great beauty of sound and unimpeachable conviction...
December 2011
13 posts
11 tags
Holiday Greetings from Eugene Drucker & The...
We in the Emerson String Quartet send greetings to our fans and friends. During the holidays we don’t play together, but we each go our separate ways musically. As usual, my wife (cellist Roberta Cooper) and I will appear with the Berkshire Bach Society on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, performing the complete Brandenburg Concertos with harpsichordist Kenneth Cooper and...
Musical America Award
On the evening of December 5th, David and Wu Han accepted Musical America’s 2012 Musicians of the Year award in a special celebration at Lincoln Center.
Click here for to read the rest of this blog at the David Finckel & Wu Han Blog.
September 2011
1 post
August - September 2011: CMS Intercontinental
A single day at the end of August separated the end and beginning of Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS) tours on two continents. David and Wu Han were the common denominators of the artist rosters, with one festival being a return visit and the other breaking new international touring ground.
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Germany: August 22-29
With a solid week of New...
June 2011
3 posts
The Big O, part 2
by Philip Setzer
And the years went by again. Many years after finishing Juilliard, starting the quartet, getting married, becoming a father, I heard the sad news that Shumsky’s wife had died. This was very sad, both because I remembered how wonderfully sweet she was to all of Oscar’s students, and also because I could imagine how lost he would be without her. And he was. I kept in touch with him...
ESQ's South American tour experience & future...
by Eugene Drucker
It’s hard to believe that our South American tour, which remains so vivid in our memories, ended more than a week ago. We enjoyed large and enthusiastic audiences everywhere we went, and each presenting organization took exemplary care of us. Of special meaning to us was the large turnout of young people at most of our concerts, and a level of hunger for chamber music...
ESQ returns to South America
Emerson String Quartet cellist David Finckel recently blogged about our recent tour of South America. He posted some great anecdotes and photos at his blog. An excerpt is included below, click here to read it in full.
After a break of a year, the Emerson Quartet returned to South America for the second visit in its entire 35-year history. On this trip the quartet returned to the countries...
February 2011
1 post
Eugene Drucker on the Emersons' Valentine's Day...
In our next three concerts, before and just after Valentine’s Day, we’ll play two pieces that for me, at least, have always evoked the realm of the sensual. The slow movement of Debussy’s quartet is tender, nostalgic and passionate. Schoenberg’s “Verklaerte Nacht” (“Transfigured Night”) is a tone poem about two people walking in the woods, the...
January 2011
2 posts
By David Finckel & Wu Han: JANUARY 13-17: FIVE...
By means of numerous departures and arrivals over five days, David and Wu Han played multiple roles on stages from New York to Washington to California. Beginning with the second program of the Chamber Music Society’s Late Night Rose series, activities featuring David and Wu Han together and as individuals allowed them to touch base with their myriad projects.
Read it here:...
WatchEmerson Quartet was featured on Teen Kids News, and aired January 1, 2011, on Fox 5 and across the country, complete stations list at www.teenkidsnews.tv
Here is a link to the story for your convenience: http://www.awptv.com/clients/tkn/segments/TKN-Emerson-122010.wmv
December 2010
2 posts
Eugene Drucker - the Emerson's Winter Activities
After a month of laying low in December (only two concerts, in Montreal and Washington), following an intense and fulfilling 5-nation, 12-concert tour of Europe in November, the Emerson will be back in full swing in January. Between the 6th and the 9th, we’ll play in Danville, Kentucky, Chicago, the Detroit area and Fort Myers, Florida. Between these and further concerts later in the...
The Big O, Part 1
That’s what we all called him, affectionately, and with the greatest respect. Never to his face, though.
I first heard of Oscar Shumsky when I was a child. My parents would talk about him, affectionately and with the greatest respect. They had both studied with him at Peabody just before the 2nd World War, when they were barely 20 and falling in love. I always heard about what a great violinist...
November 2010
1 post
Eugene Drucker Muses About London
After three concerts with varied programs at London’s venerable and gorgeous Wigmore Hall, I had a day off before traveling to Italy for the continuation of the ESQ tour. On Thursday I was given a private tour of the Handel House in Brook Street, where the great composer had lived for 36 years. It’s well worth a visit. I saw a first edition of Mozart’s arrangement of The...
October 2010
5 posts
David Finckel & Wu Han Blog - OCTOBER 3:...
Music@Menlo broke new ground on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in Menlo Park, as the Emerson String Quartet inaugurated the festival’s new winter series. A long-time consideration, the winter series now provides summer festival audiences with performances during the year, programmed and directed by the festival, and presented with Music@Menlo’s signature quality and integrity…
Read the...
Interview with Eugene Drucker, violinist with the...
AH: Good morning, Gene, thanks very much for taking time out of your busy schedule to meet with me. Let me start out by saying that I first heard the Emerson about 30 years ago at the Renwick Gallery in Washington DC. You were my introduction to live chamber music and I think I was spoiled by starting out with such a marvelous group. Can you tell me about your relationship with the Smithsonian...
Bravo, California!
This past weekend the ESQ had a 3-concert visit to California. At the Orange County Performing Arts Center, UC San Diego and Music@Menlo, we played in three excellent new chamber music halls: on Friday we performed Webern, Berg and Debussy in Samueli Theater in Costa Mesa. We first played in this hall about three years ago, and in our annual visits since then have enjoyed the clear, gratifying...
September 2010
2 posts
RAFAEL DRUIAN, WITH A LOT OF HELP FROM MY MOM
BLOG #3—My Teachers, part 2
RAFAEL DRUIAN, WITH A LOT OF HELP FROM MY MOM
My last entry left me preparing for the Queen Elisabeth Competition in the spring of 1976. After the daylong lesson with Josef Gingold, I continued to practice like never before (or since, for that matter!) trying to get and keep 17 pieces of music at the highest possible level. To my surprise, I made it to the finals...
AUGUST 26-SEPTEMBER 5: EMERSON EUROPE TOUR
Reconvening after a month-long break, the Emerson Quartet met in New York for its annual appearance at the Mostly Mozart festival, and then headed out a week later for another end-of-summer European tour. The proliferation of festivals in Europe during this period offers musicians not only numerous performing opportunities, but beautiful weather, great food, and chances to play in unusual settings...
August 2010
4 posts
5 tags
David Finckel & Wu Han on their Music@Menlo...
“I would first like to share a bit of background on the festival:
Long before we founded Music@Menlo, Wu Han and I dreamed of creating an ideal environment for music, one in which listeners would be engaged for a span of time, hearing great performances and immersing themselves in the fascinating contexts from which immortal works of music emerged. We had spent many years observing other...
Eugene Drucker on his relationship with the Second...
Having spent the last two weeks at the Bard Music Festival, where the focus this summer has been on Alban Berg and His World, I feel immersed in the atmosphere of the Second Viennese School. My wife, the cellist Roberta Cooper, has performed chamber music as well as orchestral works by many of the major composers of the first half of the 20th century, preceded by a ...
5 tags
Blog # 1 by Phil Setzer - MY TEACHERS, part 1
I have had the very good fortune of studying with some of the truly great musicians and teachers possible. I’ll begin at the beginning (please read my first blog for more background about my childhood and my family).
My father, ELMER SETZER: I started violin at the age of 5 with my dad, who was not only an excellent violinist, a member of the Cleveland Orchestra from 1949-91, but also had...
Eugene Drucker's insights into the 'Mostly Mozart'...
We’re excited about our upcoming Mostly Mozart program in Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall on August 16th. Apart from the pre-concert, which features smaller-scale but intriguing works by Dvorak and Haydn, it is an all-Mozart program, of sorts: the first piece on the main program is a set of five fugues that Mozart transcribed from Book II of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier. This...
July 2010
5 posts
3 tags
Eugene Drucker Blog #1 Aspen, Mozart, Tanglewood...
A few days after coming home from Denmark, where I had been playing concerts with my trio, I traveled to Aspen for the first performance of a weeklong tour.
Inspired by breathtaking mountain views, and glad to escape the oppressive humidity of New York, I rejoined my Emerson Quartet colleagues for a program of Dvorak and Shostakovich on July 1st in Aspen’s beautiful tent. In all...
JUNE 29-JULY 17: THE DUO IN ASPEN
Arriving in New York from Greece on Sunday, and devoting a full day to the Chamber Music Society on Monday, David and Wu Han departed Tuesday for Aspen, Colorado, to begin their customary residency at Aspen Music Festival and School. The duo looked forward to solo and chamber performances, master classes and to hearing many concerts by friends and colleagues.
...
Blog # 1 by Phil Setzer
So where do I start? This is a blog, not an autobiography. But to write about anything important to me, and maybe interesting to the reader, I have to give some background of myself.
Born March 12, 1951. My dad, Elmer Setzer, plays violin in the Cleveland Orchestra, teaches at the Music School Settlement on Saturdays and also privately at our home. He also plays in a string quartet called...
JULY 7: EMERSON QUARTET SEASON WRAP-UP
cross-posted from David Finckel and Wu Han’s blog: http://artistled.wordpress.com/2010/07/07/july-7-esq-season-wrap-up/
In front of a packed house at Tanglewood’s Ozawa Hall, the Emerson Quartet finished up a whirlwind week of concerts that closed the quartet’s 34th season. Read on about performances in Aspen, Chicago, Portland, Ottawa and Lenox, MA.
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New CD available
Old World-New World Released: April 13, 2010 Link to Buy on Itunes : http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/old-world-new-world/id365319342
Fresh off its ninth Grammy win for last year’s album Intimate Letters, the Emerson String Quartet releases Old World-New World for Deutsche Grammophon on Tuesday, April 13, 2010. Old World-New World realizes the ensemble’s longtime aspiration...