Cavani String Quartet Plays Music Of Beethoven Feb. 3

January 6, 2005

by Richard Veit

The Cavani String Quartet -- winner of the prestigious Naumburg Chamber Music Award and described by the Washington Post as "completely engrossing, powerful, and elegant" -- will present an all-Beethoven program at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 3, in Roxy Grove Hall. This is the final event on Baylor University's 2004-2005 Distinguished Artist Series.
Members of the Cavani String Quartet are violinists Annie Fullard and Mari Sato, violist Kirsten Docter, and cellist Merry Peckham, all of whom serve on the faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music. The group has been Quartet-in-Residence at the institute for more than 16 years.
The program will open with Ludwig van Beethoven's String Quartet no. 6 in B-flat major, Op. 18, No. 6, known as "La Malinconia" ("Melancholy") because of its pensive final movement. According to author Melvin Berger, "It presages the late quartets of the 1820s, with its moving evocation of grief and despair. It provides, as well, an insight into the depths of Beethoven's emotional state." It was dedicated to Austrian Prince Franz Joseph Lobkowitz.
Next, the Cavani String Quartet will play Beethoven's concise and dramatic String Quartet No. 11 in F minor, Op. 95, nicknamed "Serioso." This was the fifth of his middle-period quartets, dating from 1810.
Following intermission, the Cavani String Quartet will return to the stage to present Beethoven's penultimate composition in the genre, his String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132. The composition of this work was interrupted by a serious illness in April of 1825, and an extraordinary "Hymn of thanksgiving to the Divinity, from a convalescent, in the Lydian mode" forms the central movement.
Tickets for this Distinguished Artist Series concert are $15, with students, senior citizens and Baylor faculty and staff admitted for $10. For ticket information, call the Baylor School of Music at (254) 710-1161.