Sunday, February 9, 3:00 pm. The Lydian String Quartet with pianist Jiayan Sun
“A fire that makes all timeless music forever contemporary”
Concert Program:
Joseph Haydn Bird Quartet, op. 33 no. 3
Kurt Rohde String Quartet, Seeking All That’s Unsung
César Franck Piano Quintet in F minor
Clara Lyon and Julia Glenn, violins; Mark Berger, viola; Joshua Gordon, cello.
From its beginning in 1980, the Lydian String Quartet has been acclaimed by audiences and critics across the USA and abroad for embracing the full range of the string quartet repertory with curiosity, virtuosity, and dedication to the highest artistic ideals of music making. Residing at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts since the group’s founding, the Lydians offer compelling, insightful, and dramatic performances of the quartet literature. From the acknowledged masterpieces of the classical, romantic, and modern eras to new remarkable compositions written by today’s cutting-edge composers, the quartet approaches music-making with a sense of exploration and personal expression that is timeless.
The Lydians’ 29 currently available commercial recordings reflect their diverse and far-reaching repertoire, including works by Beethoven, Brahms, Ives, Ornstein, Persichetti, and Schubert as well as American contemporary composers they have long known and collaborated with such as Martin Boykan, Eric Chasalow, Peter Child, John Harbison, Lee Hyla, Steven Mackey, Kurt Rohde, Harold Shapero, and Yehudi Wyner. Their recording of John Harbison’s String Quartet No. 3 and “The Rewaking” was chosen by both The New York Times and The Boston Globe as one of the best classical recordings of 2001.
Here is what Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Harbison (and cousin of VCC’s Board President William Harbison!) and others have said about “The Lyds,” as they are affectionately known by Greater Boston Metro area audiences:
“… Each time I encounter the Lydian Quartet my admiration for their technical, structural, and communicative power continues to grow. They are the complete package, and the wider my travels, the deeper goes my conviction.” John Harbison
“… they revealed a fire that makes all timeless music forever contemporary.”
Sunil Freeman, The Washington Post
“… full of subtlety, tonal refinement, and a sense of accumulated musical wisdom.”
Jeremy Eichler, The Boston Globe
“… splendidly performed by the Lydian String Quartet.”
Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle
International competition prize winner and Smith College faculty member Pianist Jiayan Sun is equally at home in the role of soloist or chamber musician. Hailing from Yantai, China, he received bachelor’s, master’s and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from The Juilliard School. Sun is praised by the New York Times for his “revelatory” performances, and by the Toronto Star for his “technically flawless, poetically inspired and immensely assured playing.”
Jiayan Sun has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra, the Chinese and RTÉ (Ireland) National Symphony Orchestras, the Fort Worth and Toledo Symphony Orchestras, the Toronto and Aspen Concert Orchestras, and the Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra. He has conducted, from the keyboard, the Meiningen Court Orchestra. His performances have been broadcast by the BBC, the RTÉ, China Central Television and classical music radio stations in North America. Under the mentorship of Sir András Schiff, he was invited to give a number of solo recitals in Europe as part of Schiff’s Building Bridges Project.”
Ravel, from the Lydian Quartet:
https://youtu.be/CJW7qyH0L6M