PROGRAM NOTES
Mercury Soul returned to the Battery with an exclusive event available only to Mercury Soul supporters! Known for spectacular shows transforming iconic venues, Mercury Soul brought a more intimate and up-close experience to the Battery. Guests were treated to a lavish blend of downtempo DJ sets and captivating pop-up classical performances from composers such as J.S. Bach, Joseph Haydn, Maurice Ravel and Mason Bates. This one-night-only event featured sets by DJ Justin Reed (illmeasures Chicago), Eclecta String Quartet, Frèdèric Renaud and visuals by Mark Johns (Slide & Spin).
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What did I hear?
J.S. Bach (1685-1750)
Brandenburg Concerto No. 5: I. Allegro
The six Brandenburg concertos were sent to the Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt, from whom J.S. Bach was hoping to receive employment in his impressive musical court. While he did not secure a job in Brandenburg, this brilliant group of chamber pieces remains one of the most important pieces in the history of music.
In the earlier Baroque era when the concerto genre was first developing, the term was used more broadly than we think of it today. Instead of a single soloist being featured, the Baroque concerto contrasts groups of soloists and large ensemble, all engaging in a contrapuntal conversation.
The fifth concerto, arranged here for string quartet, opens with an energetic theme that soon gives way to virtuosic counterpoint between the instruments.
Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
String Quartet, Opus 20, No 3: IV Finale
The six string quartets Op. 20 are considered a milestone in the history of composition; in them, Haydn develops compositional techniques that were to define the medium for the next 200 years.
Every page of the six quartets of Op. 20 is of historic and aesthetic importance. They are characterized by a wide range of textures, frequent asymmetries, and theatrical gestures. Also noted for the equal treatment of the four voices, these quartets established the genre’s four-movement form and its greater aesthetic pretensions and expressive range.
Haydn chooses minor keys for two of the quartets, unusual in a time where the minor was rarely used for this ensemble. Additionally, Haydn recalls the heavy counterpoint of Bach during a time when this technique had fallen out of favor.
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
String Quartet in F Major: II. Assez vif
Maurice Ravel completed his String Quartet in F major in early April 1903 at the age of 28. It was premiered in Paris in March the following year.
The quartet’s structure is modelled on that of Claude Debussy’s String Quartet, written in 1893, although Ravel’s musical ideas strongly contrast with Debussy’s more impressionistic soundworld. Ravel’s displays emotional reticence, innovation within traditional forms, and unrivalled technical mastery.
The scherzo movement opens with a pizzicato passage, followed but a central section featuring a slow, wistful theme led by the cello. Ravel uses cross rhythms, with figures in triple time played at the same time as figures in double time.
J.S. Bach (1685-1750)
Courante of the first Bach Cello Suite
The six Cello Suites, composed between 1717 and 1723, are suites for unaccompanied cello by Johann Sebastian Bach. As usual in a Baroque musical suite, after the prelude which begins each suite, all the other movements are based around baroque dance types.
Due to the works’ technical demands, étude-like nature, and difficulty in interpretation because of the non-annotated nature of the surviving copies and the many discrepancies between them, the cello suites were little known and rarely publicly performed in the modern era until they were recorded by Pablo Casals in the early 20th century. They have since been performed and recorded by many renowned cellists and have been transcribed for numerous other instruments; they are considered some of Bach’s greatest musical achievements