The Calder Quartet Joins Camerata Pacifica In First Collaboration Of 'Why Beethoven?' Project

Camerata Pacifica continues its ambitious "Why Beethoven?" project in collaboration with The Calder Quartet, who will perform Beethoven's String Quartet in F Major, Op. 135, the last of the composer's quartets.

The impetus for Camerata Pacifica's "Why Beethoven?" project, which unfolds over the course of the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 seasons, is Beethoven's late string quartets, all of which will be performed by The Calder Quartet. The quartets, misunderstood and not well received in their time, today are universally acknowledged masterworksnow possessing almost mythological status.

Adrian Spence, Camerata Pacifica's Founder and Artistic Director, programmed the quartets in context and contrast with works from Beethoven's early and middle periods, works of contemporaries, and works of predecessors Mozart and Haydn. "Why Beethoven?" also features works by today's composers, opening the doors to explore the contemporary resonance of Beethoven's legacy.

The program opens with Camerata Pacifica Principal Artists Kristin Lee, violin, Richard O'Neill, viola, and Ani Aznavoorian, cello, joined by The Calder Quartet's Eric Byers, cello, in Anton Arensky's Op. 35 String Quartet in A Minor, written for the uncommon instrumentation of violin, viola, and 2 cellos. The program concludes with, perhaps, a celebratory nod to the holiday season with the jubilant ebullience of 16-year-old Felix Mendelssohn's String Octet in E-Flat Major, Op. 20. Camerata Pacifica artists and The Calder Quartet will join forces in this audience favorite.

Performances take place Thursday, November 29, 8 p.m. at Colburn School's Zipper Hall in Los Angeles; Friday, November 30, 7:30 p.m. at Hahn Hall in Santa Barbara; Sunday, December 2, 3 p.m. at the Museum of Ventura County in Ventura; and Tuesday, December 4, 7:30 p.m. at The Huntington Library in San Marino.

Complementing the "Why Beethoven?" musical programs, Camerata Pacifica is presenting a series of in-depth panel discussions that begin in January 2019 and feature leading scholars including Jan Swafford, author of the acclaimed Beethoven biography, Anguish and Triumph; Derek Katz, musicologist at the University of California at Santa Barbara; Andrea Moore, Professor of Music at Smith College; Daniel Chua, Professor and Chair of Music at the University of Hong Kong; Michael P. Steinberg, Director of the Cogut Center for the Humanities and Professor of History and Music at Brown University; Lydia Goehr, Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University; and Richard O'Neill, Principal Violist for Camerata Pacifica. Please click here for more information about the panel discussions.

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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