Austria’s prize-winning Minetti String Quartet is the next presentation of the Hawaii Concert Society’s 53rd season.
The young and talented musicians, described by one critic as a “musical sensation,” will perform music by Mozart followed by two autobiographical works, by Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich and Czech composer Bedrich Smetana, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the University of Hawaii at Hilo Performing Arts Center.
The Minetti quartet, founded in 2003 by four Austrian musicians, has won more prizes in international competitions than any other string quartet. Perhaps the most important of these was selection as a 2008-09 “Rising Star” by the European Concert Hall Organization, which led to debut concerts in most of the leading concert halls of the continent. The quartet has toured in North, Central and South America, Australia, Japan and China. This is its first visit to Hawaii.
The two violinists, Maria Ehmer and Anna Knopp, have long been friends and have played music together since they were 6 years old. Cellist Leonhard Roczek is a member of a family of Salzburg musicians. Violist Milan Milojicic studied at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg.
The Hilo concert will begin with Mozart’s “Adagio and Fugue,” one of the composer’s most successful experiments in absorbing the music of J.S. Bach. Originally written for two pianos in 1783, the Mozart recast it as a work for string quartet five years later.
It was in his chamber music, not in his symphonies, Shostakovich left his most heartfelt and personal musical testimonies. “Quartet No. 8,” written in 1960 in just three days after the composer was blackmailed into becoming a shackled “artist” for the Communist Party, is one of those compositions he intended “for the desk drawer.” Written as a musical autobiography, it contains no empty sentimentalisms such as those found in the pages of his public works. All five movements blend into each other, transforming the piece into a dramatic stream of consciousness.
Smetana developed a musical style that became closely identified with his country’s aspirations to independent statehood and is widely regarded in his homeland as the father of Czech music. He suffered the same tragic fate that befell Beethoven: deafness. Yet, like Beethoven, while deaf he composed some of his greatest works, including the string quartet piece “From My Life,” which clearly represents the joy and anguish he experienced during his career.
Tickets for the Thursday performance are $25 for general admission, $20 for seniors, $10 for students and $5 for up to three grade 1-12 students accompanied by an adult ticket and are available at the Most Irresistible Shop, Music Exchange, East Hawaii Cultural Center and the UH-Hilo box office.
Remaining tickets will be sold at the door.
