Past Performances

The Good Song: Gabriel Fauré in the 1890s

With guests Harry Baechtel, baritone and Michael Seregow, piano

Saturday, January 7th, 2017 at 8pm
First Presbyterian Church of San Anselmo
72 Kensington Rd, San Anselmo, CA

Wednesday, February 15th, 2017 at Noon
The Old Church, Portland, Oregon

Friday, February 17th, 2017 at 7:30pm
Beall Concert Hall, University of Oregon, Eugene

Gabriel Fauré began working on his epic D minor Piano Quintet (Op. 89) in 1887, but set it aside in the early 1890s to write his unique and inspired song cycles, La Bonne Chanson and Cinq Melodies de Venise, both of which feature poetry by the symbolist poet Paul Verlaine.  Sylvestris Quartet, baritone Harry Baechtel, and pianist Michael Seregow join forces to present these three remarkable and sublime works.  La Bonne Chanson is uniquely scored for voice, piano, and string quartet.  The composer finally finished his piano quintet in 1906, nearly twenty years after beginning working on it!

Mozart, Haydn, and Pleyel String Quartets for the (Sometimes) Good Patron of Prussia

Marin Baroque Presents Sylvestris Quartet
Friday, September 16, 2016 at 8pm
First Presbyterian Church of San Anselmo
72 Kensington Rd, San Anselmo
www.marinbaroque.org

Third Sunday Series Presents Sylvestris Quartet

Sunday, September 18th, 2016 at 4pm
Church of the Advent
261 Fell St, San Francisco
Program:
W.A. Mozart String Quartet no. 23 in F major, K.590 “Prussian no. 3”
Joseph Haydn String Quartet in D major, Op. 50, no. 6 “The Frog”
Ignaz Pleyel, String Quartet in G minor, Ben.339
 
Sylvestris Quartet plays quartets written for King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia, the cello-playing patron of the 1780s.  Mozart’s very last quartet, K.590 was initially inspired by the King, who later lost interest in the works and failed to make good on his commission.  Mozart was “forced to give away [his] quartets for a ridiculous sum of money” to a publisher.  Nonetheless, these “Prussian” quartets, along with the contemporary and legendary Requiem inspired Haydn to call Mozart “immortal.”  Hear Mozart’s last quartet on gut strings, as lively as the day it was premiered in Mozart’s living room in Vienna in 1790.

Papa and the Young Virtuoso: string quartets from the dawn of a new century

Berkeley Early Music Festival Fringe
June 9th, 2016 at 10:30am
Berkeley City Club, Member’s Lounge

Program:
Joseph Haydn, Op. 77, no. 2 “Lobkowicz” (1799)
Louis Spohr, String Quartet no. 5, Op. 15, no. 2 (1809)

Sylvestris Quartet plays Joseph Haydn’s last complete string quartet, Opus 77, no. 2, written at age sixty-seven in the year 1799, and a rarely heard, lively, and inventive work by the twenty-four year old virtuoso violinist Louis Spohr, his Opus 15, no. 2 from 1809. This “scene” reveals two works, written in different centuries, but within the span of 10 years, and shows the father of the string quartet witnessing the dawning of a new era, alongside a daring, young composer, whose personal style owes as much to contemporary influence as it does to Haydn’s refined model.