Haydn Voyages

Missy Mazzoli – Enthusiasm Strategies (2019)

Joseph Haydn – Quartet No. 31 in B Minor, op. 33, no. 1 (1781)

Júlian Carrillo – Quartet No. 3 “Two Sketches” (1928)

Leoš Janáček – Quartet No. 1 “Kreutzer Sonata” (1923)

Missy Mazzoli’s Enthusiasm Strategies (2019) opens our tenth season, and her words offer a fitting framing: she describes music as “a way of setting the world in order, a method of carving up time in way that, seemingly by magic, changes our frame of mind, energizes us, and gives us courage and reassurance.” Haydn’s quartets certainly fit that description, and his opus 33, no. 1 featured on this program is a sparkling example. The second half of this concert features two works that were composed a few years apart in the 1920’s, though the revolutionary sonic worlds they inhabit are distinct; Júlian Carillo’s 150th birthday would be two days after this concert, and his third quartet (Two Sketches) is part of his exploration in microtonal music. Janacek’s first quartet was inspired by Tolstoy’s Kreutzer Sonata and is one of the 20th century’s masterpieces.