Date/Time
Saturday, November 2, 2024
2:00 pm PDT – 4:00 pm PDT
Location
UCLA William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
2520 Cimarron Street
New this season: All Chamber Music at the Clark tickets will be sold by the UCLA Central Ticket Office. Tickets may be purchased online, via telephone, or in person.
Ticket prices: General $55; Senior (age 55+) $45; UCLA student (valid student ID required for each ticket) $15. Tickets are non-refundable.
Tickets for this concert will go on sale Tuesday, October 1 at 12:00 noon.
Seating at the Clark Library is limited, and tickets are likely to sell out within a few minutes.
Online: https://tinyurl.com/3mevyppr
Telephone: (310) 825-2101
In person: Central Ticket Office windows located on the UCLA campus at 325 Westwood Plaza (ground level, across from Pauley Pavilion).
If any tickets for this concert remain unsold, they will be available for purchase at the Clark Library on the day of the event. Any available day-of tickets will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis by a Central Ticket Office representative beginning at 1:00 p.m. Payment will be accepted via credit card only. For inquiries, please call or email the Central Ticket Office at (310) 825-2101 or cto@tickets.ucla.edu, Monday–Friday 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
Program
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)
String Quartet No. 20 in D major, K. 499 (“Hoffmeister”)
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
Chorale Vor deinen Thron tret’ ich BWV 668 (extr. 18 Chorale Preludes, BWV 651-668)
Sofia Gubaidulina (b. 1931)
Reflections on the Theme B-A-C-H for String Quartet
Johannes Brahms (1833–1897)
String Quartet No. 1 in C minor, op. 51, No. 1
Cuarteto Casals
Vera Martínez Mehner, violin
Abel Tomàs, violin
Cristina Cordero, viola
Arnau Tomàs, cello
“Is there a typical Cuarteto Casals sound? Definitely. It is characterized by a maximum, extremely delicate penetration of the score and a multi-layered sound that always has something fluorescent, glassy.”
Alexander Dick, Badische Zeitung, September 2022
Since winning First Prizes at the London and Brahms-Hamburg competitions, Cuarteto Casals,
which was founded in 1997 at the Escuela Reina Sofía in Madrid, has been a continual guest at
the world’s most prestigious concert halls, including Carnegie Hall, Philharmonie Berlin, Cité de
la Musique Paris, Philharmonie Paris, Konzerthaus and Musikverein in Vienna, Concertgebouw
Amsterdam, and Suntory Hall, among many others.
To celebrate its twenty-fifth anniversary, the quartet released a recording of the complete Art of Fugue by J.S. Bach to much critical acclaim and is currently undertaking a recording of all fifteen quartets by Dmitri Shostakovich, one of the great cycles of the twentieth century, which will be released in the fall of 2024.
With more than twenty-seven years of experience together, Cuarteto Casals has compiled a substantial discography with the Harmonia Mundi label featuring repertoire ranging from lesser known Spanish composers Arriaga and Toldrá to Viennese classics Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven,
Schubert, and Brahms, through twentieth-century greats Debussy, Ravel, Zemlinsky, Bartók, Ligeti, and Kurtág, as well as a live Blu-ray recording of the complete Schubert quartets for Neu Records.
A prize from the prestigious Burletti-Buitoni Trust in London enabled the quartet to begin a
collection of matching Baroque and Classical period bows which it uses for works from Purcell
through Schubert, refining its ability to distinguish between diverse musical styles. In addition,
the quartet has been profoundly influenced by its work with living composers, especially György
Kurtág, and has given the world premiere of quartets written by leading Spanish composers,
including a concerto for string quartet and orchestra by Francisco Coll, premiered with the
Orquesta Nacional de España, and commissions by Mauricio Sotelo, Benet Casablancas,
Dahoud Salim, Lucio Amanti, Aureliano Cattaneo and Matan Porat. Additionally, the quartet has
performed John Adams’s Absolute Jest with many orchestras and will perform the world
premiere of Elisenda Fabregas’s Fiery Earth in the Palau de la Música Catalana in 2025.
In recognition of its unique contributions to the cultural life within Catalunya and throughout Spain, Cuarteto Casals has been acknowledged as cultural ambassadors by the Generalitat of Catalunya and the Institut Ramon Llull. Past awards include the Premio Nacional de Música, the Premi Nacional de Cultura de Catalunya and the Premi Ciutat Barcelona; additionally the quartet has had the privilege to perform repeatedly on the extraordinary collection of decorated Stradivarius instruments at the Royal Palace in Madrid. To honor Cuarteto Casals’s decades on the concert stage, the quartet has received the prestigious Medal of Honor from Reina Sofía of Spain.
In addition to giving much sought-after masterclasses, Cuarteto Casals is quartet-in residence-at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole , the Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag, and at the Escola Superior de Musica de Catalunya in Barcelona.
In 2024-25, the quartet starts a new chapter and welcomes Cristina Cordero on viola.
Cuarteto Casals is represented in the United States by Arts Management Group www.artsmg.com
Chamber Music at the Clark
Professor Rogers Brubaker, Artistic Director
Chamber Music at the Clark will be celebrating its 30th anniversary season in 2024–25. Thanks to the generous support of Friends of the Clark, the series has presented over 175 concerts, featuring some of the world’s finest chamber ensembles, in its uniquely intimate drawing room venue with its superb acoustics. The anniversary season will feature two special tributes. The November 17, 2024 concert will honor the late Peter Hanns Reill, who served for nearly two decades as Center and Clark Director, and who founded the series in 1994. The April 27, 2025 concert will honor Bruce Whiteman, who served as Head Librarian of the Clark from 1996 until 2010, and who has written our wonderful program notes for a quarter of a century. We hope you will be able to join us for another splendid season of music-making.
Chamber Music at the Clark is made possible by The Ahmanson Foundation, under the auspices of Lee Walcott; Henry J. Bruman Endowment for Chamber Music; The Colburn Foundation; Ms. Brenda Anderson; Mrs. Martha R. Bardach; Catherine Glynn Benkaim, Ph.D. and Barbara Timmer; Dr. Rogers Brubaker; Dr. Johanna R. Drucker; Dr. Susan S. Harris and Mr. Mark J. Harris; Ms. Judy L. Hellinger; Dr. David E. Lopez; Drs. Martin and Susan Mach; Mr. Bernie and Ms. Elaine Mendes; Mrs. Janet K. Minami; Mr. Jeffrey L. Nagin and Mrs. Bette I. Nagin; Dr. Theodore M. Porter; Dr. Jeanne Robson; Dr. Thomas Rosenthal and Ms. Susan M. Rosenthal; Ms. Carol E. Sandberg; Charles H. and Carol “Jackie” Schwartz; Dr. Patricia Bates Simun and Mr. Richard V. Simun Memorial Fund; Professor Bronwen Wilson; and Roberta and Robert Young.
Please see here for more information about our chamber music programs.
Photograph credit: Pablo Rodrigo Studio, courtesy of Cuarteto Casals