The following article was contributed by Candlelight Concerts.
Wilton Candlelight Concerts will present the third offering in its 75th anniversary season with the Brentano String Quartet. The concert will take place on Sunday, Feb. 26, at 4 p.m., in the Wilton Congregational Church. The Quartet’s program, Dvořák and the American Identity, features works by the Bohemian composer, who was an enthusiastic proponent of traditional American music, alongside works by American composers who were influenced by him.
The Quartet is named for Antonie Brentano, whom many scholars consider to be Beethoven’s “Immortal Beloved,” the intended recipient of his famous love confession. Formed in 1992, the Quartet soon received the first Cleveland Quartet Award and the Naumburg Chamber Music Award.
In addition to performing the entire two-century range of the standard quartet repertoire, the Brentano Quartet has a strong interest in both very old and very new music. It has performed many musical works pre-dating the string quartet as a medium, among them Madrigals of Gesualdo, Fantasias of Purcell, and secular vocal works of Josquin. Also, the quartet has worked closely with some of the most important composers of our time, among them Elliott Carter, Charles Wuorinen, Chou Wen-chung, Steven Mackey, Bruce Adolphe, and György Kurtág. The Quartet has commissioned works from Wuorinen, Adolphe, Mackey, David Horne and Gabriela Frank. The Quartet celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2002 by commissioning ten composers to write companion pieces for selections from Bach’s Art of Fugue, the result of which was an electrifying and wide-ranging single concert program. The Quartet has also worked with the celebrated poet Mark Strand, commissioning poetry from him to accompany works of Haydn and Webern.
In recent seasons the Quartet has traveled widely, appearing all over the United States and Canada, in Europe, Japan and Australia. It has performed in the world’s most prestigious venues, including Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York; the Library of Congress in Washington; the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam; the Konzerthaus in Vienna; Suntory Hall in Tokyo; and the Sydney Opera House. The Quartet has participated in summer festivals such as Aspen, the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, the Edinburgh Festival, the Kuhmo Festival in Finland, the Taos School of Music and the Caramoor Festival.
The Quartet has recorded the Opus 71 Quartets of Haydn, and has also recorded a Mozart disc for Aeon Records, consisting of the K. 464 Quartet and the K. 593 Quintet, with violist Hsin-Yun Huang. In the area of newer music, the Quartet has released a disc of the music of Steven Mackey on Albany Records, and has also recorded the music of Bruce Adolphe, Chou Wen-chung and Charles Wuorinen.
The Feb. 26 concert is the third in Wilton Candlelight Concerts’ 2022/23 season. Tickets for this concert may be purchased online or at the door. Adult tickets are $30, seniors are $25, and students are free. Information about future concerts is available on the website or by phone at 203.417.7203. Candlelight Concerts benefits the Wilton Library Association and the KEYS program, and happily accepts individual and corporate tax-deductible contributions.