New Hollywood String Quartet and Da Camera Society Present Summer of Beethoven Chamber Music Festival

The New Hollywood String Quartet and The Da Camera Society present the Summer of Beethoven Chamber Music Festival, a four-concert festival featuring 11 works built around the composer's beloved chamber music, on July 14 - 17, 2022, at the stunning Pompeian Room of the Doheny Mansion.

Joining the New Hollywood String Quartet - violinists Tereza Stanislav and Rafael Rishik, violist Robert Brophy, and cellist Andrew Shulman - are acclaimed violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, LA Phil principal clarinet Boris Allakhverdyan, pianist Fabio Bidini, LA Phil concertmaster Martin Chalifour, LA Phil principal cellist Robert deMaine, pianist Rohan De Silva, and more.

Summer of Beethoven is the third chamber music festival since the New Hollywood String Quartet's 2019 Summer of Brahms Festival, which featured performances of all 25 instrumental chamber works of Brahms in a series of eight consecutive sold out concerts. The LA Times praised the "enthusiastic robustness" and "sheer liquidity," of the performances. In December 2020, the NHSQ presented the Vienna Holiday Concerts which celebrated the chamber music of Schubert and Mozart. Classical Voice noted, "At the Huntington, the NHSQ exuded a refined and luminous presence in keeping with its growing reputation, 20 years into its history."

"The Summer of Beethoven Festival brings together the Quartet's esteemed friends and colleagues from around the world, many of whom joined us for the Brahms Festival, to perform the music that inspired us all as young musicians," said Rishik. "We are delighted to partner with The Da Camera Society and share the exquisite beauty and wonder of Beethoven's chamber music with our audiences in the gorgeous, intimate setting of the Pompeian Room."

The Festival showcases the best of Beethoven's vast chamber music output. Repertoire was chosen from each one of his compositional periods, to convey the arc of his evolution as a composer. The three string quartet performances represent Beethoven's early, middle and late periods: his first, String Quartet, No.1, Op.18 No.1; his last, String Quartet in F major, Op. 135; and the radiant String Quartet in C major, Op. 59, No. 3 "Razumovsky," perhaps the most thrilling of all his quartets.

The world renowned violinist Anne Akiko Meyers and acclaimed pianist Fabio Bidini will perform the opening work of the Festival, Beethoven's Violin Sonata No.5 in F Major "Spring," regarded as one of the most beautiful and lyrical sonatas in the repertoire.

Arguably one of his most famous sonatas, Beethoven's Violin Sonata No. 9, Op. 47, "Kreutzer Sonata," is a foreshadowing of where his compositional journey was headed, and will be performed by Festival alumni Roger Wilkie, violin, and Rodolfo Leone, piano.

The two piano trios that were selected for the Festival program again demonstrate the evolution of Beethoven's compositions. Piano Trio in C Minor, Op 1 No. 3, performed by De Silva, Tereza Stanislav and Andrew Shulman, is written in the classical tradition of Haydn and Mozart; Piano Trio in D Major, Op.70 No.1 "Ghost," performed by Chalifour, deMaine and De Silva, pushes the harmonic envelope in ways that are still compelling today. Shulman and Bidini will also perform Cello Sonata No. 5 in D Major, Op.102 No. 2, which has one of the most challenging piano fugues ever written.

Beethoven's String Quintet in C Major, Op. 29 is rarely performed but it is a beautiful example of the composer's ability to expand the tonal boundaries, convey a sense of humor and still stay within the confines of the classical form. This is also a wonderful opportunity to reunite with a wonderful young violist Johanna Nowik, who joined the New Hollywood String Quartet for the Brahms Festival. The LA Times review noted that Nowik showed "herself to be a young violist ready to make her mark."

LA Phil principal clarinetist Boris Allakhverdyan will be performing the beautiful Clarinet Trio in B flat Major Op. 11, and will also join everyone for a performance of Beethoven's Septet in E flat Major Op. 20. This Septet is one of Beethoven's most beloved and enduring of his chamber works.

For more information, please visit: www.newhollywoodstringquartet.com.

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