Since its formation in 1976, the Emerson String Quartet has gradually achieved recognition as one of the world's top chamber ensembles. The group's reputation partially rests upon its daring interpretations of core string quartet repertory; it has performed the complete quartet cycles of Beethoven, Shostakovich, Mendelssohn, and Bartók in major concert halls around the world, and its interpretations tend toward the personal, the passionate, and even the hell-for-leather. Audiences have responded enthusiastically to the quartet's involvement with the music it performs. The Emerson (named for Ralph Waldo Emerson) has recorded prolifically since signing with the Deutsche Grammophon label in 1987, and the quartet has won nine Grammy awards, including two for Best Classical Album.

 

 

The members of the Emerson String Quartet -- violinists Eugene Drucker and Philip Setzer, violist Lawrence Dutton, and cellist David Finckel -- have maintained top-flight solo careers of their own. The group is based in New York City, and in 2002 they became quartet-in-residence at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Their long list of awards includes the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize in 2004, and the group members have received honorary doctorates from Middlebury College, Wooster College, and Bard College.

 

 

Program
Haydn
String Quartet in D Major, Op. 50, No. 6 ("The Frog")

Mozart
String Quartet in D Major, K. 499 ("Hoffmeister")

- Intermission -

Beethoven
String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 131