May
2012
Join us as the "dean of American cellists" (Washington Post) joins forces with the first chamber ensemble ever to be awarded the Avery Fisher Career Grant.
Program
- Schubert Quintet for 2 violins, viola and 2 celli
- Beethoven Quartet Op. 18 No. 2
- Barber Quartet for Strings
Lynn Harrell’s presence is felt throughout the musical world. A consummate soloist, chamber musician, recitalist, conductor and teacher, his work throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia has placed him in the highest echelon of today’s performing artists.
Hailed by the New York Times as possessing “explosive vigor and technical finesse”, the dynamic Miró Quartet, one of America's highest-profile chamber groups enjoys its place at the top of the international chamber music scene. Now in its second decade, the quartet continues to captivate audiences and critics around the world with its startling intensity, fresh perspective, and mature approach.
Critical acclaim for Lynn Harrell
“The Cello Concerto No. 1 by Shostakovich, like so many of his works, suggests an aural diary where innermost worries and dreams have been recorded. The brilliant American cellist Lynn Harrell unlocked those secrets with playing that was extraordinarily incisive and gripping” Baltimore Sun
“Once in a generation a cellist makes an irrefutable claim to the Elgar Concerto. For years the piece belonged to Paul Tortelier (onetime Boston Symphony Orchestra principal cellist); the charismatic and tragic Jacqueline DuPre made it her own. And last night Lynn Harrell took possession of the piece and won both the audience’s undivided attention and a standing ovation that recalled him to the stage four times.
Harrell responds both to the famous elegiac element in Elgar and to the robust, sinewy and ruddy-cheeked side, both aspects joined on a long, singing through-line. From the opening gesture, Harrell embraced us and didn’t put us down, gently but with a flourish, until the end. His playing was bold, imaginative, and surpassingly sensitive…fully human and rich in detail”
Boston Globe
“The dean of American cellists, Lynn Harrell, joined the [National Symphony] orchestra for Barber’s Cello Concerto, Op. 22….Harrell’s artistry marries elegant restraint, a sensitive musical imagination and commanding technique. This experienced virtuoso drew out the plangent and more agitated passages in the outer movements, while his cello joined in magical conversation with the NSO woodwinds in the touching second movement Adagio.” Washington Post
Critical acclaim for the Miró Quartet
“Throughout, the Miró Quartet played with explosive vigor and technical finesse.” New York Times
“The performance…left the audience in stunned silence. The Miró's exceptional tonal focus and interpretive intensity kept the music's various subtexts in urgent perspective. Especially in the elegiac Adagio, the players held phrases and gauged dynamics for all their expressive worth. You could feel the anguish in your bones. No one moved after the final notes of the last movement slowly died away.” Cleveland Plain‐Dealer
“All of these attributes came through with exemplary clarity in the quartet's
performances. Violinists Daniel Ching and Sandy Yamamoto, violist John Largess and cellist Joshua Gindele play with remarkable cohesiveness the
group's joint efforts outstrip any individual contributions and together produce an ensemble tone that is smooth and alluring.” San Francisco Chronicle
“The quartet played a gorgeous interpretation. And they were exciting to watch, working with great cohesion, cueing one another as they paused at times, lifting their bows for a second of silence, before landing back on the strings simultaneously. The effect was very dramatic.” Cincinnati Enquirer
“…the Miró raised the work to a much higher level, with exceptional phrasing,
remarkable ensemble and detailed attention.” Pittsburgh Post‐Gazette
“The quartet has the singular skill of becoming the music without imposing themselves on the composer's muse. No passing sensation, the Miró Quartet is surely among the most promising chamber ensembles around.” Denver Post
Lynn Harrell bio | Miro Quartet bio
Mr. Harrell is a frequent guest of many leading orchestras including Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Ottawa, Pittsburgh, and the National Symphony, and in Europe the orchestras of London, Munich, Berlin, Tonhalle and Israel. He has also toured extensively to Australia and New Zealand as well as the Far East, including Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan and Hong Kong. In the summer of 1999 Mr. Harrell was featured in a three-week “Lynn Harrell Cello Festival” with the Hong Kong Philharmonic. He regularly collaborates with such noted conductors as James Levine, Sir Neville Marriner, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, André Previn, Sir Simon Rattle, Leonard Slatkin, Yuri Temirkanov, Michael Tilson Thomas and David Zinman.
In recent seasons Mr. Harrell has particularly enjoyed collaborating with violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and pianist, André Previn. In January 2004 the trio appeared with the New York Philharmonic performing the Beethoven Triple Concerto with Maestro Masur conducting.
An important part of Lynn Harrell’s life is summer music festivals, which include appearances at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, the Aspen and Grand Tetons festivals, and the Amelia Island Festival.
On April 7, 1994, Lynn Harrell appeared at the Vatican with the Royal Philharmonic in a concert dedicated to the memory of the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. The audience for this historic event, which was the Vatican’s first official commemoration of the Holocaust, included Pope John Paul II and the Chief Rabbi of Rome. That year Mr. Harrell also appeared live at the Grammy Awards with Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman, performing an excerpt from their Grammy-nominated recording of the complete Beethoven String Trios (Angel/EMI).
Highlights from an extensive discography of more than 30 recordings include the complete Bach Cello Suites (London/Decca), the world-premiere recording of Victor Herbert’s Cello Concerto No. 1 with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields led by Marriner (London/Decca), the Walton Concerto with Rattle and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (EMI), and the Donald Erb Concerto with Slatkin and the Saint Louis Symphony (New World). Together with Itzhak Perlman and Vladimir Ashkenazy, Mr. Harrell was awarded two Grammy Awards – in 1981 for the Tchaikovsky Piano Trio and in 1987 for the complete Beethoven Piano Trios (both Angel/EMI). A recording of the Schubert Trios with Mr. Ashkenazy and Pinchas Zukerman (London/Decca) was released in February 2000. His May 2000 recording with Kennedy, “Duos for Violin & Cello,” received unanimous critical acclaim (EMI). Most recently, Mr. Harrell recorded Tchaikovsky’s Variations for Cello and Orchestra on a Rococo Theme, Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 2, and Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Gerard Schwarz conducting (Classico).
Lynn Harrell’s experience as an educator is wide and varied. From 1985-93 he held the International Chair for Cello Studies at the Royal Academy in London. Concurrently, from 1988-92, he was Artistic Director of the orchestra, chamber music and conductor training program at the L.A. Philharmonic Institute. In 1993, he became head of the Royal Academy in London, a post he held through 1995. He has also given master classes at the Verbier and Aspen festivals and in major metropolitan areas throughout the world. From 2002-2008, Mr. Harrell taught cello at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music.
Lynn Harrell was born in New York to musician parents. He began his musical studies in Dallas and proceeded to the Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute of Music. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the first Avery Fisher Award.
Mr. Harrell plays a 1720 Montagnana. He makes his home in Santa Monica, CA.
Hailed by the New York Times as possessing “explosive vigor and technical finesse”,
the dynamic Miró Quartet, one of America's highest‐profile chamber groups enjoys
its place at the top of the international chamber music scene. Now in its second
decade, the quartet continues to captivate audiences and critics around the world
with its startling intensity, fresh perspective, and mature approach.
Founded in 1995 at the Oberlin Conservatory, the Miró Quartet met with immediate
success winning first prizes at the Coleman, Fischoff, and Banff competitions as well
as the prestigious Naumburg Chamber Music Award. The Miró Quartet was also a
recipient of the Cleveland Quartet Award and was the first ensemble ever to be
awarded the Avery Fisher Career Grant. Since then, the Miró Quartet has
performed throughout the world in important venues such as Carnegie Hall, the
Concertgebouw, the Berlin Philharmonic’s Kammermusikaal, and the Konzerthaus
in Vienna. In the 2009‐2010 season, the quartet will perform across Europe, Asia,
the Caribbean, and North America.
The Miró Quartet has collaborated with such artists as Leif Ove Andsnes, Joshua Bell,
Eliot Fisk, Lynn Harrell, Midori, Jon Kimura Parker and Pinchas Zukerman. A
favorite of numerous summer festivals, the Quartet has appeared regularly at the
Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, La Jolla Summerfest,
Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, and the White Pine Festival.
The Miró Quartet has been heard on numerous national and international radio
broadcasts, including National Public Radio's Performance Today and Minnesota
Public Radio's Saint Paul Sunday. In addition, the Quartet has released numerous
recordings, most recently the Op. 18 Quartets of Beethoven on the Vangaurd
Classics label. The Quartet’s recording of George Crumb’s Black Angels won the
prestigious French "Diapason d'Or" prize. In the Fall of 2009, the quartet will
embark on a new partnership with Naxos and Longhorn Music with the release of a
live recording featuring works of Kevin Puts and Antonín Dvořák.
Deeply committed to music education of all ages, the Miró Quartet serves as the
Faculty String Quartet‐in‐Residence at the Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music
at the University of Texas at Austin. At the University of Texas, the quartet members
teach private students as well as coach chamber music groups. In the summers, the
quartet has taught at the Sunflower Festival, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Lake
Tahoe Music Festival, and the Kent/Blossom Music Festival. On short notice, the
Quartet filled in for both Isaac Stern and Henry Meyer, leading master classes in
Lucerne, Switzerland and Jeunesses Musicales Deutschland. The Quartet continues
to give frequent master classes at many institutions around the world. For more
information, please visit www.miroquartet.com
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© 2012