Del Sol String Quartet will Conclude “Soundings” Series at C4NM

Next month the Center for New Music (C4NM) will host the final concert in this year’s Sounding series, produced annually by the Del Sol String Quartet, whose members are (left-to-right in the photograph below) violinists Benjamin Kreith and Rick Shinozaki, violist Charlton Lee, and cellist Kathryn Bates:

photograph by R. J. Muna, courtesy of C4NM

As has been previously observed, each concert in the series involves the juxtaposition of a musical performance and the display of visual art, with the combination embedded in a context of in-depth discussion. For this Soundings 4.3 concert the visual art will be that of bonsai, and the discussion will be led by Eric Schrader, President of the Bonsai Society of the Bonsai Society of San Francisco:

courtesy of C4NM

The musical side of the program will be Caroline Shaw’s 2011 string quartet “Entr’acte.” This composition seems to have one of the more unique inspirations. It involves not another quartet from the chamber music literature, but the specific performance of that quartet by the Brentano Quartet. The music they were playing was Joseph Haydn’s Hoboken III/82 quartet (the second of his Opus 77 quartet); and, in her own words, Shaw was taken by “their spare and soulful shift to the D-flat major trio in the minuet.” She neglects to say on the Web page for this piece that the minuet itself is in F major, meaning that Haydn’s modulation was about as radical as one could get. However, she does say that her own piece “is structured like a minuet and trio.” My past two encounters with this piece have found it enigmatic (even where that preposition “like” is concerned), leaving me wondering just how much explanation would be required to resolve those enigmas.

This performance at C4NM will begin at 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 15. It will be preceded by a reception with the artists at 6:30 p.m. C4NM is located at 55 Taylor Street, about half a block north of where Golden Gave Avenue meets Market Street. General admission will be $20 with a $15 rate for C4NM members. Both levels of tickets may be purchased in advance online through a Vendini event page.