The Equinox String Quartet is rapidly gaining recognition as an ensemble that is destined to take its rightful place among the great string quartets of the world.
Its members, world class performers Lun Jiang and Quan Jiang, violins; Ariel Rudiakov, viola; and Ann Kim; violincello, have studied at the Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music, and Yale University; with some of the most prominent names in chamber music, including members of the Juilliard String Quartet, the Tokyo String Quartet, and cellist Nathaniel Rosen.
The Equinox String Quartet performs a wide range of repertoire from classical standards to contemporary pieces, specializing in the identification of new and unusual works by great composers. Their debut recording, released on the Eroica label in December, 1997, features two String Quartets by Camille St. Saint-Saëns, Op. 112 and Op. 153. This exclusive release, the only recording of these two great works on the same CD, promises to become a collector's item.
Lun & Quan Jiang - violins
The Jiang twins were born in Shanghai, China, and studied at the Manhattan School of Music with Professor Stanley Sednar, where they have just given their Master's graduation recitals. Lun and Quan have won first prizes in several competitions, and have been heard in live performances on WQXR in New York City and the TV program "Curtain Raiser." They toured South Korea in March, 1996, and now plan to devote their professional lives to the string quartet repertoire. The fact that they are twins may account for at least 50-percent of the Equinox String Quartet's deserved reputation for "playing as one!"
Ann Kim - cello
Ms Kim began her cello studies in New York City at the age of 6, at which time she was accepted into the pre-college division of the Juilliard School as a scholarship student, an astonishing and legendary achievement! Soon afterwards, she was chosen to be a member of the chamber group which recorded for and appeared on the Nickelodeon gifted children's show "Pinwheel" on national television. Since then Ann's musical career has burgeoned, encompassing many recitals and chamber music performances in venues in Korea, Canada and the United States. She has appeared as guest artist with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the Trenton Symphony Orchestra, and the Concerto Soloists Orchestra of Philadelphia. She has performed twice with the Philadelphia Orchestra as a winner of two of their Young Artists Competitions. Ann has performed solo recitals at Alice Tully Hall in New York City, the Academy of Arts in Philadelphia, and the Garden State Arts Center in New Jersey. As a chamber musician, she has studied with Felix Galimir, Alexander Schneider, and members of the Juilliard String Quartet. Ms Kim holds a Bachelor's degree in Comparative Literature from Princeton University, and has just completed the Masters program at the Juilliard School where she studied with Harvey Shapiro.
Ariel Rudiakov - viola
Mr. Rudiakov received his Bachelor's degree from SUNY at Purchase, NY and a Master of Music degree from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. He studied privately with Karen Ritscher, Jesse Levine and Guillermo Perich, and chamber music with members of the Tokyo String Quartet while at Yale University. Mr. Rudiakov is the Assistant Director of the Manchester Music Festival and active as a solo, chamber and orchestral musician. He is a member of the Manchester Chamber Players and the Equinox String Quartet, groups which he co-founded. Ariel is also active as a conductor and has recently been appointed Music Director of the Adelphi Chamber Orchestra. He was invited to guest conduct the Bergen Philharmonic in New Jersey and is the conductor of the Manchester Festival Orchestra.String Quartet in G Major, Op. 153 (1918)
I Allegro animato: After a joyous fanfare figure, this ebullient movement unfolds with compelling logic and a feeling of inevitability.
II Molto adagio: A lovely nocturne in musically "pastel" tones
III Interlude and finale: After a stately and reflective opening, Saint-Saëns playfully evokes the four open strings (E/A/D/G) of the violin. This series of notes makes various appearances, both overt and hidden, throughout the last movement. The lovely first theme is partially derived from these tones.
String Quartet in E Minor, Op. 112 (1899)
I Allegro: A miracle of "Beethovenesque" development, Saint-Saëns constructs virtually the entire movement (indeed the entire quartet) from the interval of the falling major second (the appoggiatura F# to E appearing in the first violin in the opening passages).
The movement is steeped in the aforementioned melancholy.
II Molto allegro quasi presto: A highly syncopated virtuoso movement with "moto-perpetual" inspiration. The middle section is celebratory and festive in flavor.
III Molto adagui: A lovely composition with a long opening cantilena reminiscent of, or perhaps more properly, anticipating, Mahler.
IV Allegro non troppo: An energetic and dramatically satisfying Finale.
Camille Saint-Saëns (October 9, 1835 - December 16, 1921) is one of the most fascinating and seminal figures in French music. In the course of an exceptionally long professional career, he composed over 800 works, enriching the keyboard repertoire alone by some 80 pieces.
His masterworks include much of the worlds most beloved music, including the Organ Symphony, the Cello Concerto, the Opera "Samson & Delila", and the Carnival of the Animals.
Endowed with an incandescent intellect, Saint-Saëns was an amazingly facile and technically adept musical master. At the age of two-and-a-half he taught himself to play the piano; at three he produced his earliest compositions. At ten, at his first public piano recital, he captured international attention by offering to play, by memory, any of the 32 Beethoven sonatas as an encore. His brilliance astounded his older colleagues. "He knows everything...but lacks inexperience," quipped Berlioz of his friend and protege. Gounod heralded him as "the French Beethoven." Liszt, who considered him the finest organist in the world, paid for and mounted the first public appearance (in Weimar) of Samson & Delila.
Although Saint-Saëns could be an ardent and persuasive champion of "progressive" music (Wagner, Liszt, Schumann, Moussorgsky, et al) his own music epitomizes the French taste for "classically" impeccable craftsmanship, moderation, clarity, and balance:
"I ran after the chimera of purity of style and perfection of form...The artist who doesn't feel completely satisfied with elegant lines, harmonious colors or a fine series of chords, does not understand art."
One of Saint-Saëns important contributions to French music was the founding (with Romain Bussine) of the Societe Nationale de Musique in 1871, which gave inspiration to, and a forum for, works by young contemporaries, including D'Indy, Chausson, Dukas, and Ravel. In addition to his musical career, Saint-Saëns occupied himself with scholarly pursuits in the fields of astronomy, archaeology, botany, geology, lepidoptery, poetry, philosophy, and even the occult.
His public success and prodigious intellectual activity notwithstanding, Saint-Saëns was nevertheless a rather acerbic and lonely man. His strongly voiced musical opinions ultimately cost him many would-be supporters. His enemies claimed that the music did not live up to its promise, and that the admittedly elegant creations were devoid of the spirit and substance that was embodied in more "progressive," dramatically conceived music. His bitterness over this assessment only reinforced his tendency towards misanthropism (it is well documented that he much preferred the company of animals to that of people).
Heaped on all this is personal and domestic tragedy: in 1878 he lost both of his young children to an accident and illness. Holding his wife responsible, he walked out on the marriage without formal separation or divorce, never to see her again. The frame of mind that these situations engendered contributed, no doubt, to the pessimism expressed in the Saint-Saëns book "Problems et Mysteres", in which atheism is advocated. It is no surprise then, that much of Saint-Saëns' music is tinged with melancholy, albeit an asthetically transmogrified melancholy that is exalted, bittersweet, and profoundly touching and pleasurable.
Check out the artist's website:
http://www.eroica.comTrack List:
1. String Quartet in G Major, Op. 153: Allegro Animato
2. Molto adagio
3. Interlude et Final
4. String Quartet in E Minor, Op. 112: Allegro
5. Molto allegro quasi presto
6. Molto adagio
7. Allegro non troppo
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