Camerata Pacifica's WHY BEETHOVEN Series Continues With The Calder Quartet

Camerata Pacifica continues its "Why Beethoven?" project with the return of the Calder Quartet, who will perform Beethoven's String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 127, and pianist Molly Morkoski, violist Jonathan Moerschel, and flutist Benjamin Smolen, who will perform Charles Ives's Piano Sonata No. 2, which opens the program.

Ives's Piano Sonata No. 2, Concord, Mass., 1840-60, portrays in music New England's most prominent authors - the Transcendentalists. This monumental sonata, one of Ives's most performed and most difficult works, celebrates Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Bronson and Louisa May Alcott, and Henry David Thoreau in its respectively named movements. The Concord sonata is at turns overwhelming, tender, funny, beautiful and witty. It's massive in its magnificence and tremendously demanding of the performer - a worthy program partner to a late Beethoven quartet.

Beethoven's String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 127 is the first of his legendary late quartets - five string quartets that are impetus for Camerata Pacifica's two-season "Why Beethoven?" project. Bewildering and controversial from their premieres, these works hold almost mythological status today and provide the "Why?" for Camerata Pacifica's Beethoven project. Says Beethoven scholar Daniel Chua. "In these pieces, Beethoven's language undergoes a self-searching progress towards an abstraction that forces the emotional and technical content of the music to break down in violence." Op. 127 is the first step along that path - but, indeed, are these works so radical, or do they suffer from the projection of our own Romantic perceptions? In performance, in discussion, in the context of other works, Camerata Pacifica offers its Beethoven journey.

Why Beethoven? Panel Discussions

Complementing the "Why Beethoven?" musical programs, Camerata Pacifica is presenting a series of three in-depth panel discussions. Beethoven experts from all over the world will gather for dynamic conversations about Beethoven's influence, from past to present.

The next panel discussions, "Tonality, The Late Quartets, and Beyond... or not." will be held on:

• Thursday, February 28 at 7 p.m. at the Pasadena Conservatory of Music.

• Friday, March 1 at 7 p.m. at Santa Barbara City College.

Watch Camerata Pacifica Founder and Artistic Director talk about the panel series here.

Participating scholars include:

• Daniel K.L. Chua, Professor and Chair of Music at the University of Hong Kong

• Richard Yongjae O'Neill, Principal Violist, Camerata Pacifica

Please click here for the complete schedule and more information.

Subscriptions ($219-$522) and single tickets ($58) can be ordered online at http://cameratapacifica.org/season-tickets/order-tickets or by calling 805-884-8410.

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