The DaPonte String Quartet visits Denton this weekend.
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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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Winding Up
With Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra going through the German masters this weekend, contemporary music enthusiasts should find their way up to Denton for their fix.
The DaPonte String Quartet derives its name from the librettist who provided the words for Mozart’s operas, Lorenzo Da Ponte. Don’t let that fool you, though. The Maine-based group plays its share of traditional chamber music, such as Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, but it also makes a point of playing contemporary fare. (At their Carnegie Hall debut six months ago, they played the premiere of David Del Tredici’s first string quartet, with the composer in attendance. He later raved about their work.) They’re in Denton this week giving master classes and performing with the UNT Wind Symphony. The piece they’ll be playing Thursday and Friday is a Concerto for String Quartet and Wind Orchestra by Erwin Schulhoff, the Czech-Austrian composer who eventually died in a Nazi concentration camp. Schulhoff’s earlier work had been distinguished by his exposure to Dada, jazz, and folk music, but this 1930 piece finds him using a harsher, more angular sound — some of the passages sound like Bartók.
Also on the bill is Susan Botti’s Cosmosis, a piece that premiered at Carnegie Hall last February that sets the poetry of May Swenson to music. Filling out the bill will be John Corigliano’s Third Symphony, entitled Circus Maximus. This noisy work debuted at the University of Texas at Austin last February and features, among other things, a police siren, brass instruments playing in the aisles and from the audience seats, and a gun being fired onstage. Both performances will be filmed for eventual release on DVD.
The UNT Wind Symphony plays 7:30pm Thu-Fri at Winspear Hall, I-35E & Av D, Denton. Admission is free. Call 940-369-7802.
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