Haydn Voyages

Joseph Haydn: String Quartet no. 14 in E-flat Major, op. 9/2 (1769)

Jessie Montgomery – Source Code (2013)

Pauline Oliveros: Tuning Meditation (1971)

Dmitri Shostakovich: String Quartet no. 9 in E-flat Major, op. 117 (1964)

The season opens with an exploration of the transformative power of music through works with strikingly different points of origin and world views. Jessie Montgomery’s Source Code re-imagines works by African American poets, dancers and jazz singers active in the Civil Rights era to create a transportive sound world all of her own. Pauline Oliveros’ 1971 Tuning Meditation takes both audience and performers on a participatory deep-listening journey. It comes from a set of pieces the composer highlights for a “focus on community, the social power of sound, an extended recognition of its sources, and its deconstruction of hierarchy. Though undoubtedly a new way of composing, it also proposed a new way of existing in the world, and interacting with others.” The centerpiece is Dmitri Shostakovich’s Ninth Quartet, a powerfully intense work which was in fact his second attempt at writing a ninth string quartet, as he burned his first draft “in an attack of healthy self criticism.” As usual, Haydn’s constant reinvention and endless creativity will be on full display.