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The program should include: String
Quartet in D Major
Teaching himself to read English enabled him to read and study the styles and compositions of Debussy, Ravel and other composers. His String quartet in D major was written in 1913. He is best known as a composer of danzas, a very sophisticated form of music that can be extremely varied in its expression. Quintón died on December 19, 1925 in the town of Coamo where he is buried. The town of Coamo has honored his memory by naming one of its principal avenues after him and by conserving the house in which he lived in as a historical landmark. The José I. Quintón Academy of Music is located in Coamo. Notes adapted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia website. |
I N T E R M I S S I O N
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String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 41, No. 1
by Robert Schumann I. Introduzione: Andante espressivo: Allegro II. Scherzo: Presto: Intermezzo III. Adagio IV. Presto
Although Schumann regarded the op. 41 quartets very highly, he never again wrote for strings alone; every subsequent chamber work included, or indeed featured, the piano. Schumann’s musical achievements and his great personal happiness with his beloved Clara and their large family (eight children) were overshadowed by the specter of mental illness. His father, August, had suffered from so-called “nervous disorders,” and his sister Emelia had committed suicide. Despite signs of his own emotional instability, Schumann was able to continue teaching at the Leipzig Conservatory until 1844, when he suffered a severe breakdown. After he recovered, he became conductor at Dusseldorf in 1850, but recurring illness soon interfered with his duties in that position. He began to experience hallucinations and to show other symptoms of mental illness. After his failed attempted suicide in 1854, he asked to be placed in a mental asylum in Endenich, Germany, where he died two years later on July 29, 1856. Introspective, impassioned, and innovative, Schumann represents the highest ideals of Romanticism. His personal, emotional music continues to impress listeners in a most affecting and direct way. Notes adapted from Melvin Berger's Guide to Chamber Music. |
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Time, date, and program subject to change. |
José Ignacio Quintón was born on February 1, 1881 in Caguas, Puerto Rico, into a musically talented family. His father, a Frenchman by the name of Juan Bautista Quintón y Luzón, was a graduate of the Conservatory of Music of Paris and his son's first music teacher. When Quintón was two years old, his family moved to the town of Coamo, where he took piano lessons with Ernesto del Castillo. In 1890, when he was nine years old, he performed his first concert. When he was only eleven years old he accompanied the famed violinist Brindis de Salas, on the piano and was highly acclaimed by de Salas. Quintón continued to study music and was the director of his school's band. During his spare time he gave piano and violin lessons.
Robert Schumann was born in Zwickau, Germany on June 8, 1810. He had a tendency to cluster his compositions. For eight years beginning in 1831, he wrote piano pieces; in 1840 he wrote mostly songs; in 1841 his first symphonies were written; and 1842 was the year for chamber music—three string quartets, a piano quintet, and a piano quartet. The composer worked on the first two quartets simultaneously and then went on to the third; all were done within five weeks and were dedicated “To his friend Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.” He arranged for the premiere of all three as a present for his wife Clara on September 13, her twenty-third birthday.