Ives Collective – Sunday, May 5 at 4 pm
PROGRAM NOTES AVAILABLE ONLINE HERE
Ives Collective
Fritz Gearhart, violin
Susan Freier, violin/viola
Clio Tilton, viola
Evan Buttemer, viola
Stephen Harrison, cello
Gwendolyn Mok, piano
Germaine Tailleferre Quatuor (1919)
Emilie Mayer Piano Quartet in G major (1857?)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart String Quintet in C major, K. 515
Our Spring sets build on last season’s commitment to presenting lesser heard works by women composers Germane Tailleferre and Emilie Mayer. Our program includes the Quatuor by Tailleferre whose Piano Trio we performed last season. Her characteristic transparency and melodic sense imbues this gem. Two larger pieces take up the rest of the program: Mozart’s sunny and buoyant C major String Quintet, K. 515 and the much less familiar Piano Quartet in G Major by the German Romantic Emilie Mayer (1812-1883). Mayer was both influential and popular during her time, but was largely forgotten, in part because of the difficulty she had in getting her scores published. Fortunately, her music is undergoing a revival and finally getting into print.
The Ives Collective, formed in 2015 by Co-Artistic Directors Susan Freier and Stephen Harrison, following the disbanding of the Ives Quartet, is comprised of an impressive and ever evolving roster of musicians who bring together careers worth of experience at great music making organizations such as at the San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, New Century Chamber Orchestra, the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Opera Parallèle, and various university faculties and festivals.
At the core of the Collective’s inspiration is its members’ joy in playing richly varied chamber repertoire with longtime friends and colleagues for eager concert attendees. Its roster allows for the programming of virtually all the core string, wind, vocal and piano chamber music repertoire—from vocal duos to clarinet quintets to wind and string octets. While all its members have independent careers as ensemble members, soloists and chamber musicians, they strive for every opportunity to come together and share in this special collaboration aimed at presenting powerful live music experiences through fresh and informed interpretations of established masterworks and under-appreciated gems.