The Cassatt String Quartet, founded in 1985, performs a free concert at the Italian Academy at Columbia University on March 30, 2023.
We spoke with the members of the CSQ about the March 30 program and about the history and mission of the group.
Your March 30, 2023 program at Columbia University features works by three American women (Amy Beach, Dorothy Rudd Moore and Florence Price), your quartet is comprised of women musicians, and takes its name from Mary Cassatt, a woman famous for her impressionist artwork in the 19th and 20th centuries. Tell us how this confluence of women connects with the mission of your ensemble?
CSQ cellist Gwen Krosnick: One central element of the CSQ’s mission and values is our focus on contemporary music - in particular on the music of people whose work may not yet have been as widely represented on stages as we believe it should be. We're delighted to highlight Amy Beach's gorgeous piano quintet, as well as two quartet works by the great Black American composers Florence Price and Dorothy Rudd Moore. Each of these women deserves to be part of the celebrated canon of artists in our field, and it's an honor and a joy to work on their music and bring it to audiences.
I do hope that the painter Mary Cassatt - whose work was so often undeservedly lumped together with other impressionists as a footnote because she was a woman – would, if she were still alive, approve of this concert’s total focus, front and center, on an exuberant and diverse array of artistry that features American women, both in the programming and in the personnel!
How did you choose the three works on the program? What attracted you to each of them?
CSQ violinists Muneko Otani and Jennifer Leshnower: In celebration of the 100th anniversary of women’s right to vote, we incorporated Amy Beach’s Piano Quintet into our 2020-2021 season, and we had the pleasure of working with two different pianists: Ursula Oppens and Lydia Artymiw. Beach’s Quintet has gorgeous melodies, rich harmonies and lush Romantic writing. We are looking forward to reuniting with the pianist Magdalena Baczewska, who brings a fresh perspective and artistry to our performances.
Krosnick: With programming, in a string quartet, there's a wonderful balance of individual passions. This program, music by Price, Moore, and Beach, is very much representative of that – there were lots of thoughtful discussions before settling on this together!
It's been a joyful discovery process, with each work individually and also in seeing how the works dialogue with each other, illuminate each other, and come even more alive in each other's presence.
The G major Quartet by Florence Price is a truly great program opener, full of tenderness, miraculously beautiful tunes, and all kinds of experimentation in form: two movements only, the first of which is an adventurous sonata-form structure and the second featuring a gorgeous, hymn-like A section that alternates with an irresistible chromatic tune in the viola. The Dorothy Rudd Moore string quartet, Modes (more about that below), is an exceptionally personal and emotional statement in an entirely different language all her own: deeply chromatic, full of rhythmic choices that add lilt, thorns, and excitement. It is hauntingly beautiful, from beginning to end - or at least until the opening of the third movement, at which point the quartet explodes into joyous dance. The Piano Quintet by Amy Beach is full of high drama and sweeping romance: in some ways emblematic of the romantic chamber music language so many audience members already know and love, but again in a very personal, highly original take. All three of these composers deal in elements we may recognize - gorgeous melody, intricate counterpoint, deep attention to form and meter - but in their hands, each in a different and wonderful way, these elements reveal themselves anew.
You perform the Piano Quintet by Amy Beach with pianist Magdalena Baczewska. Tell us about your history and association with her.
Otani and Leshnower: Magdalena and the Cassatt have enjoyed working together over the past six or seven years. Our paths crossed at Columbia University, where she and Muneko are colleagues. She is a very thoughtful artist with great flexibility.
Krosnick: As a newer member of the CSQ, this project is my first time playing with Magdalena. She's a lovely colleague, a beautiful pianist, and a generous collaborator. Because of the Columbia University connection between Magdalena and Muneko, Magdalena is almost like extended family.
Especially in the past several years, we’ve been hearing about, and hearing the music of, the composers Florence Price and Amy Beach. Dorothy Rudd Moore is a less familiar name in American music. Tell us a little bit about her, and how you discovered her string quartet Modes.
Krosnick: I fell in love with Dorothy Rudd Moore's music in 2020; since then I have shared it as much as possible. From the first notes I heard - an astonishing recording of From The Dark Tower, her song cycle for mezzo-soprano, cello, and piano - there has been something in her music, her voice, that I find heart-stopping, irresistible, and so deeply personal. Her Baroque Suite for Unaccompanied Cello is one of my favorite program openers on solo recitals (and I’m performing it this season in New York, Boston, and Ohio).
When I joined the Cassatt Quartet, one of the first projects I advocated for was Moore's string quartet, Modes. My colleagues listened to the work and were drawn in, as I had been, by her chromatic language, the deeply personal voice there, and her incredible skill at writing for string quartet. This quartet is unusual for many reasons, especially how much she is able to accomplish - emotionally and compositionally - in such a brief form. This is a short piece with the impact of a monument.
I believe deeply that Dorothy Rudd Moore is one of the great American composers ever to live. Her chromatic language - horizontal, vertical, melodic, harmonic – is so personal in every moment; her command of form, phrase structure, meter, rhythm are unique. Most importantly, though, like the greatest of all composers one loves: the great skill with which she uses all these distinct, beloved compositional elements to her own undeniable, personal, deeply vivid emotional ends - this big, emotional impact of Moore’s music is hers alone. Her music does not sound like anyone else’s but her own.
The Cassatt String Quartet was founded in 1985, so you are approaching 40 years of music-making. What keeps you going as an ensemble, and to what do you credit your longevity?
Otani and Leshnower: The joy of making music and the opportunity to collaborate with great artists keeps us inspired and challenged. Commissioning and recording works by living composers, many of whom are now long-standing friends and musical partners, has always been a core component of our mission. Teaching also fulfills us. We are honored to serve as a bridge to the next generation.
Krosnick: I'm turning 37 in a few weeks, so I'm admittedly not (yet) the one to answer how one stays present and engaged for four decades doing this! But I will say that at least one common element struck me from my first moments with each one of my CSQ colleagues: a real love not only of the music we play, but of the process of working and trying to come to a new vision and understanding of the pieces together. String quartet life is complex: different egos, priorities, and backgrounds are always at play, sometimes at battle, often at odds. But there's a foundational level of respect for each other and for the act of playing chamber music that I believe we share, and that we try to center in on, even in our busiest and most exhausted moments. I think this helps us keep going!
There will never be enough time to play all the great music for string quartet - old, new, and yet to be composed. The well of inspiration is very literally endless, and it is a privilege just to be able to drink from it each day.