Escher Quartet with Jordan Bak, viola | March 16, 2024 | House Program

CLASSICAL / ENSEMBLE SERIES
ESCHER QUARTET
with violist, Jordon Bak
MARCH 16, 2024, AT 7:30 PM
CLASSICAL / ENSEMBLE SERIES
ESCHER QUARTET
with violist, Jordon Bak
MARCH 16, 2024, AT 7:30 PM

CLASSICAL / ENSEMBLE SERIES
ESCHER QUARTET
with violist, Jordon Bak
ESCHER QUARTET
Adam Barnett-Hart, violin
Brendan Speltz, violin
Pierre Lapointe, viola
Brook Speltz, cello
WITH
Jordon Bak, viola
PROGRAM
HAYDN
String Quartet in D Major, Op. 64, No. 5, The Lark
Allegro moderato
Adagio cantabile
Minuet: Allegretto
Finale: Vivace
JANÁČEK
String Quartet No. 2, Intimate Letters
Andante con moto — Allegro
Adagio — Vivace
Moderato — Adagio — Allegro
Allegro — Andante — Adagio
INTERMISSION
DVOŘÁK
String Quintet No. 3 in E Flat Major, Op. 97, American
Allegro non tanto
Allegro vivo — Un poco meno mosso
Larghetto
Finale: Allegro giusto

PROGRAM NOTES
An accomplished violinist, composer Joseph
Haydn (1732-1809) often played the first violin part
in chamber ensembles for his own pleasure and
enjoyment. This intimate understanding of what
it means to sit in the first chair, is worth noting in
the way that Haydn often gives the first violinist
the important melodic material. In the case of the
Op. 64, No. 5, Quartet, the first violin’s introduction
of the opening movement’s main theme is said
to characterize the work’s nickname, The Lark.
As with many nicknames, though, once applied it
is remarkable how appropriate they seem in the
broader context—for example, the grace notes
heard in the Minuet, could also be perceived as
having a bird-like quality. Equally, the way the
last movement flies off in just over two minutes,
projects a soaring velocity that is just as apt.
Czech composer Leoš Janáček (1854-1928) was
born just 13 years after his compatriot, Antonin
Dvořák (1841-1904), and he cited the older
composer as an early influence, even dedicating
some of his early compositions to Dvořák.
However, Janáček’s Second String Quartet, one of
the last works he composed, has a distinctive voice
that seems far removed from Dvořák’s approach
to tonality and form. This four-movement quartet,
with its emphasis on introducing unexpected
new ideas and colours at almost every turn is,
by Janáček’s own explanation, representative of
the ecstatic portrayal of a seventy-four-year-oldcomposer
expressing his unbridled passion for a
lover, 38 years his junior, and why he subtitled the
work, “Intimate Letters.”
At the age of fifty, Dvořák was appointed professor
of composition at the Prague Conservatory, but
just one year later he received an offer he really
couldn’t refuse, becoming the Director of the
National Conservatory of Music in New York
City for a salary 25 times larger than his Prague
stipend. Once in America, Dvořák was drawn to
the originality of African/American spirituals and
native Indigenous music, commenting specifically
on how these musical traditions shared a common
emphasis on repetitive melodic gestures and
repeated rhythmic patterns. Dvořák even wrote
articles encouraging American composers to use
these sources as a foundation for a distinctive
American style of composition.
Shortly after arriving in in the United States,
Dvořák accepted a New York Philharmonic
commission for his Ninth Symphony, a work he
subtitled, From the New World. This work so
successfully captured the expressive flavour of the
African/American spiritual in the slow movement’s
theme, that 30 years later, words were added
to the melody to create the spiritual-like song,
“Goin’ Home.” This “new world” background bears
heavily on today’s String Quintet, as it was one
of three works given the subtitle, American—all
of which were composed during the summer
of 1893 while Dvořák was orchestrating the
Ninth Symphony for its upcoming Carnegie Hall
premiere. While there is an honest simplicity in the
thematic material in these pieces, as always with
Dvořák, there is a spontaneity in the development
of his musical ideas. This process is clearly on
display in the Quintet’s slow movement that is
structured as a set of five variations based on a
double theme, the first half placed in the unusual
string key of A flat minor, while the other half shifts
to A flat major.
©2024 by John Burge for the Isabel
ABOUT ESCHER QUARTET
The Escher String Quartet has received acclaim for
its profound musical insight and rare tonal beauty.
A former BBC New Generation Artist and recipient
of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, the quartet has
performed at the BBC Proms at Cadogan Hall and
is a regular guest at Wigmore Hall. In its home town
of New York, the ensemble serves as season artists
of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
The Escher Quartet has made a distinctive
impression throughout Europe with recent
debuts including the Amsterdam Concertgebouw,
Berlin Konzerthaus, London’s Kings Place, Tel
Aviv Museum of Art, and Auditorium du Louvre.
The group has appeared at festivals such as the
Heidelberg Spring Festival, Budapest’s Franz Liszt
Academy, the Hong Kong International Chamber
Music Festival, and the Perth International Arts
Festival in Australia. Alongside its growing
European profile, the Escher Quartet continues
to flourish in its home country, performing at
the Aspen Music Festival, Bravo! Vail, Santa Fe

Chamber Music Festival, Toronto Summer Music,
Chamber Music San Francisco, Music@Menlo, and
the Ravinia and Caramoor festivals.
The 2022-2023 season saw the release of two
albums including string quartets by Pierre Jalbert
and the Escher’s studio recording of the complete
Janáček quartets. Recordings of the complete
Mendelssohn quartets and beloved romantic
quartets of Dvořák, Borodin and Tchaikovsky were
released on the BIS label in 2015-18 and received
with the highest critical acclaim, with comments
such as “...eloquent, full-blooded playing... The
four players offer a beautiful blend of individuality
and accord” (BBC Music Magazine).
Beyond the concert hall, the Escher Quartet is
proud to announce the creation of a not-for-profit
organization, ESQYRE (Escher String Quartet
Youth Residency Education). ESQYRE’s mission is
to provide a comprehensive educational program
through music performance and instruction for
people of all ages. In addition, the quartet has held
faculty positions at Southern Methodist University
in Dallas, TX and the University of Akron, OH.
The Escher Quartet takes its name from the Dutch
graphic artist M.C. Escher, inspired by Escher’s
method of interplay between individual components
working together to form a whole.
ABOUT JORDAN BAK
Award-winning Jamaican-American violist Jordan
Bak has achieved international acclaim as a
trailblazing artist, praised for his radiant stage
presence, dynamic interpretations, and fearless
power. Critics have described him as “an exciting
new voice in Classical performance” (I Care If You
Listen), “a powerhouse musician, with a strong
voice and compelling sound” (The Whole Note) and
lauded his “haunting lyrical grace” (Gramophone).
The 2021 YCAT Robey Artist and a top laureate
of the 2020 Sphinx Competition, Bak is also a
Grand Prize winner and Audience Prize recipient
of the 2019 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh
Competition, the recipient of the 2019 Samuel
Sanders Tel Aviv Museum Prize and the 2019 John
White Special Prize from the Tertis International
Viola Competition. Other recent accolades include
being named one of ClassicFM’s “30 Under 30”
Rising Stars, Musical America’s New Artist of the
Month and being a featured artist for WQXR’s
inaugural Artist Propulsion Lab.
Bak has appeared as soloist with such orchestras
as Sarasota Orchestra, London Mozart Players,
New York Classical Players, Juilliard Orchestra and
Brandon Hill Chamber Orchestra among others, and
has performed under such esteemed conductors
as Howard Griffiths, Stephen Mulligan, Keith
Lockhart, Gerard Schwarz, and Ewa Strusińska.
As a recitalist and chamber musician, he has been
heard at some of the world’s greatest performance
venues including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall,
the Concertgebouw, Wigmore Hall, Jordan Hall,
Merkin Concert Hall, Princeton University Concerts,
Perelman Theater at The Kimmel Center, Elgar
Concert Hall, and Helsinki Musiikkitalo. Bak’s recent
performances include recitals at Kravis Center,
Wiltshire Music Centre, Isabella Stewart Gardner
Museum, Harriman-Jewell Series, Lichfield Festival,
and Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival.
Recent and upcoming highlights include NEXUS
Chamber Music, Brooklyn Chamber Music Society,
and Emory University, as well as an upcoming tour
with Musicians from Marlboro. Bak has performed
as a guest with the Verona Quartet and Merz Trio
and has collaborated with such artists as Jonathan
Biss, Lara Downes, Jennifer Frautschi, Ani Kavafian,
Soovin Kim, Charles Neidich, Marina Piccinini, and
Gilles Vonsattel.
Passionate about education, Bak currently serves
as Assistant Professor of Viola at University of
North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA). He
was a former faculty member of Bowling Green
State University in Ohio and served as a visiting
artist and Ambassador for Music Masters in
London. Additionally, he has given masterclasses at
Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University,
Oberlin Conservatory, University of Wisconsin-
Madison, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (UK),
Conservatorio del Tolima (Colombia), and the
Brevard Music Center.
Only the third violist to earn the Artist Diploma from
The Juilliard School, Jordan Bak holds a Bachelor of
Music degree from New England Conservatory and
a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School
where he was awarded the prestigious Kovner
Fellowship. His principal teachers were Dimitri
Murrath, Hsin-Yun Huang, and Samuel Rhodes.
Jordan Bak plays a 2016 viola made by Jon van
Kouwenhoven.