Juilliard opens Union season

The Juilliard String Quartet opens the 2002-2003 season at the Wisconsin Union Theater on Friday, Sept. 20 at 8 p.m.

The performance is scheduled to include Haydn’s Quartet in G Minor, Op. 20, No. 3; Ralph Shapey’s Quartet No. 10, commissioned by the Juilliards; and Schumann’s Quartet in A Major, Op. 42, No. 3.

Asked about the quartet’s mix of old and new, European and American music, cellist Joel Krosnick says that a quartet by an old master sounds different when played after a newer piece.

“The spirit of modernism echoes in the older music. It also enlivens our performance,” Krosnick says. “Recent pieces don’t have such a clear sound that has been generated by a performing tradition. We experiment more, we try more. By interpreting contemporary music one doesn’t stiffen in a routine of interpretation but one always reads the works anew.”

Having performed for more than 50 years, the ensemble is one of the world’s longest-lasting and most respected string quartets. The current lineup is Joel Smirnoff, violin primarius, Ronald Copes, violin, Samuel Rhodes, viola and Krosnick, cello.

The ensemble has recorded more than 100 releases, many of them award winning. Its recording of quartets by Ravel, Debussy, and Dutilleux was selected by The Times Magazine of London as one of the 100 Best Classical CDs ever recorded. “For sure,” says the New York Times, “all four players are incisive musicians who bring plenty of intensity to their work.”

The Juilliard String Quartet appears at the Wisconsin Union Theater under the sponsorship of the Wisconsin Union Directorate Performing Arts Committee. The Norman Bassett Foundation provides additional support. Promotional support is provided by Wisconsin Public Radio.

Tickets: $30 ($28 for Union members and $14 for UW–Madison students) are available at the Union Theater Box Office, (608) 262-2201.