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February 16, 2009
Concerts feature premieres, farewells

By Jessica Moore

March brings the final two Flora Glenn Candler Concerts of the season featuring the renowned Guarneri String Quartet in their last Atlanta appearance and the Vega String Quartet premiering new works by Emory music faculty in a concert with the vocal sextet Lionheart.

Composed of violinists Arnold Steinhardt and John Dalley, violist Michael Tree and cellist Peter Wiley, the Guarneri String Quartet will perform Franz Joseph Hadyn’s “‘The Rider’ String Quartet in G Minor, op. 74, No. 3,” Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály’s “String Quartet No. 2, op. 10” and Maurice Ravel’s “String Quartet in F Major” (March 3; 8 p.m.; $52, $39 Emory faculty, staff, $5 Emory students).

Considered “among the most revered and enduring ensembles of its kind in the world,” by National Public Radio, the quartet has circled the globe numerous time since their formation in 1964.

The Vega String Quartet, Emory’s Quartet in Residence, performs the world premiere of Emory music faculty Richard Prior’s string quartet “intimations of immortality” and John Anthony Lennon’s “Still the Fire” for saxophone, cello and piano (March 20; 8 p.m.; $48, $36 Emory faculty and staff, $5 Emory students). Prior says his three-movement work of “exploratory musical essays” was “directly inspired by the world of literature and poetry, namely Dante, Shakespeare and Dylan Thomas.”

Vega then joins Lionheart for Phil Kline’s “John the Revelator.” This emotional and mysterious work combines aspects of a traditional mass such as “Gloria” and “Kyrie” with a variety of innovative elements, including text from the Old Testament, poet David Shapiro and Samuel Beckett’s monologue, “The Unnamable.” The texts, which are accompanied by string quartet, are meant to suggest “a narrative of redemption in a blighted world,” writes the composer Phil Kline who will give a pre-concert lecture at 7 p.m. for ticketholders.

Lionheart and the Vega Quartet will give a “Perspectives on Performance” lecture/demonstration that is free (March 19, 2:30 p.m.). Both Phil Kline and Lionheart are Emory Coca-Cola Artists-in-Residence.
For tickets and information call 404-727-5050, or visit www.arts.emory.edu.