DANBURY, CONN. — The Manhattan String Quartet (MSQ) will perform three selections from Ludwig van Beethoven’s rich legacy of string quartet works in a concert to be presented on Wednesday, Oct. 4, at Western Connecticut State University.

WestConn Professor of Music Eric Lewis will lead the MSQ in a performance starting at 8 p.m. in Alumni Hall on the university’s Midtown campus, 181 White St. in Danbury. The concert, “Beethoven: The String Quartets,” will feature an all-Beethoven program including Opus 18, No. 3; Opus 131; and Opus 59, No. 3, popularly known as “The Hero Quartet.”

Following the MSQ’s successful international tour during the 2005-06 season featuring the complete body of 15 string quartet works by Russian composer Dimitri Shostakovich, Lewis described the group’s focus on Beethoven in the 2006-07 season as a fitting recognition of Beethoven’s historical role in the development of string quartet works.

“It’s very important for a string quartet like ours to focus our attention on the master of string quartet works, Beethoven,” he said. “These works deserve multiple listenings, for a depth of music that enriches the entire classical repertoire.”

Lewis noted the program will begin with one of Beethoven’s earliest string quartet works, Opus 18, No. 3. “It’s interesting that Beethoven himself apparently was not totally confident about string quartet writing, as he was almost 30 years old when he finally wrote his first,” he said. “But once he started, you couldn’t stop him.”

The second work featured in the concert, Opus 131, was among the last of Beethoven’s 16 string quartets and widely regarded as his master work in the genre. Following intermission, the MSQ will conclude its performance with “The Hero Quartet,” the third of a trio of quartets commissioned by the Russian Count Andreas Razumovsky during Beethoven’s middle period of string quartet composition.

The MSQ was founded by Lewis in 1968 and has earned an international following over the past four decades through frequent tours and acclaimed recordings of string quartet works by Beethoven, Shostakovich, Bedrich Smetana, Charles Ives and other masters of the genre. In addition to his artistic work as first violinist and conductor with MSQ and as a solo and ensemble performer in other venues, Lewis has served for many years as an instructor and ensemble mentor in the WestConn music department.

In addition to Lewis, MSQ members featured in the WestConn concert are Calvin Wiersma, a violinist who has appeared with chamber groups and symphonies worldwide; John Dexter, a violist with MSQ since 1980 and guest artist with numerous chamber groups and orchestras including the New York City Opera Symphony and the Hong Kong Philharmonic; and Chris Finckel, a cellist who has appeared as guest artist with the Tokyo String Quartet, Orpheus Chamber Ensemble and other chamber groups.

MSQ’s WestConn concert is part of an active 2006-06 season that will feature additional all-Beethoven programs at Storm King Art Center in Mountainville, N.Y.; St. Bartholomew’s Chapel in New York City; and the Bargemusic center in Brooklyn, N.Y. The MSQ will make a second Connecticut appearance this fall at the Episcopal Church in Washington (Conn.), performing a program of quartets by Smetana and Beethoven.

Other concerts scheduled this season will take the MSQ to upstate New York, Westchester County, Wisconsin, and Prague in the Czech Republic, where the group will present two performances in January of works by Smetana, Shostakovich and Beethoven.

The MSQ also will conduct a chamber music workshop on Sunday, Oct. 8, at WestConn on Beethoven’s “Hero Quartet.” The one-day workshop from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. will include an open rehearsal and discussion by members of the MSQ, coaching in quartet format and a talk by Yale University musicologist David Clampitt. Workshop size is limited and the registration fee is $210; application forms are available on the MSQ Web site at www.manhattanstringquartet.com.

 

For more information, call Lewis at (203) 778-0167 or contact him by e-mail at ericlewis46@yahoo.com.