Reserved Hall Seats: $50.00, $29.00, $25.00 (partial obstruction)
General Admission/Outdoors/Uncovered: $20.00, Students: $10
catalystquartet.com
gabrielcabezas.com
J.S. Bach: Cello Suite No.3 in C Major
Jorge Amado: “Relatos Magicos” (2022), for string quintet (New York premiere)
Schubert: Cello Quintet in C, D.956
Karla Donehew-Perez, violin
Abi Fayette, violin
Paul Laraia, viola
Karlos Rodriguez, Cello
Gabriel Cabezas, cello
Hailed by The New York Times at its Carnegie Hall debut as “invariably energetic and finely burnished… playing with earthy vigor,” the Grammy Award-winning Catalyst Quartet was founded by the internationally acclaimed Sphinx Organization in 2010. The ensemble (Karla Donehew Perez, violin; Abi Fayette, violin; Paul Laraia, viola; and Karlos Rodriguez, cello) believes in the unity that can be achieved through music and imagine their programs and projects with this in mind, redefining and reimagining the classical music experience.
Cellist Gabriel Cabezas is a true 21st century musician. A prolific and sought-after soloist and collaborator, he is as comfortable interpreting new works as he is with the pillar scores of the cello repertoire. Gabriel has appeared with America’s finest symphony orchestras, including those of Philadelphia, Chicago, Cleveland and New York, and has premiered dozens of new works by some of the most brilliant composers of his time.
Karla Donehew-Perez, violin
Abi Fayette, violin
Paul Laraia, viola
Karlos Rodriguez, cello
with GABRIEL CABEZAS, cello
Latin Voices: Bach, Schubert, Amado
J.S. Bach (1685-1750): Cello Suite No.3 in C Major, BWV 1009
Prelude – Allemande – Courante – Sarabande
Bourree I – Bourree II – Gigue
Jorge Amado (b.1997): Relatos Magicos (2022), for String Quintet (New York Premiere)
El antiguo conjuro del sabio (The ancient incantation of the sage)
Aquelarre rústico (Rustic coven)
El coral de los magos (The chorale of the magicians)
En las tierras mágicas del claroscuro (In the magical lands of chiaroscuro)
INTERMISSION
Franz Schubert (1797-1828): Cello Quintet in C Major, D.956 (Op.163)
Allegro ma non troppo
Adagio
Scherzo. Presto – Trio. Andante sostenuto
Allegretto
Hailed by The New York Times at its Carnegie Hall debut as “invariably energetic and finely burnished … playing with earthy vigor,” the Grammy Award-winning Catalyst Quartet was founded by the internationally acclaimed Sphinx Organization in 2010. The ensemble (Karla Donehew-Perez, violin; Abi Fayette, violin; Paul Laraia, viola; and Karlos Rodriguez, cello) believes in the unity that can be achieved through music and imagine their programs and projects with this in mind, redefining and reimagining the classical music experience. They have toured widely throughout the United States and abroad, including sold-out performances at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., at Chicago’s Harris Theater, Miami’s New World Center, and Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall in New York. The quartet has been guest soloists with the Cincinnati Symphony, New Haven Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá, and has served as principal players and featured ensemble with the Sphinx Organization’s featured ensemble, the Sphinx Virtuosi, on six national tours. They have been invited to perform at important music festivals such as Mainly Mozart in San Diego, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Sitka Music Festival, Juneau Jazz and Classics, Strings Music Festival, and the Grand Canyon Music Festival, where they appear annually. In 2022 the Catalyst Quartet was named ensemble in residence for the Chamber Music Northwest Festival in Portland and for the Met Museum’s LiveArts series in NYC.
Recently named one of “23 Composers and Performers to Watch in ’23” by the Washington Post, cellist Gabriel Cabezas is a prolific and sought-after soloist and collaborator, as comfortable interpreting new works as he is with the pillar scores of the cello repertoire. Gabriel has appeared with America’s finest symphony orchestras, including those of Philadelphia, Chicago, Cleveland and New York, and has premiered dozens of new works by some of the most brilliant composers of his time. He recently released Lost Coast, a dynamic album of original music composed by Gabriella Smith inspired by her reflections on climate change, which she has seen devastate her home state of California. The album was named one of NPR Music’s “Favorite Albums of 2021” and a “Classical Album to Hear Right Now” by The New York Times. Gabriel premiered Lost Coast, reimagined by the composer as a daring work for solo cello and orchestra, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel in May 2023. In 2016, Gabriel received the Sphinx Medal of Excellence, a career grant awarded to extraordinary classical Black and Latinx musicians. Gabriel studied at the Curtis Institute of Music under Carter Brey.
A 2020 graduate of Havana’s Universidad de las Artes (ISA), Jorge Amado received honors in both composition and violin. As a composer, Jorge has participated in several important Cuban festivals of contemporary music, such as Composition Awards Casa de las Américas, the Havana Contemporary Music Festival, the Havana Chamber Music Festival and Festival Música Nova. He has received numerous accolades and awards in composition: Musicalia 2015, 2017 and 2018 sponsored by Universidad de las Artes (ISA); 1st Prize in the UNEAC Composition Competition “Harold Gramatges” 2015 (Cuba); Finalist of the Alfred Schnittke Competition and Composers’ Forum 2016 (Ukraine); 8SW Composition Competition Award, New York, (USA) 2018; Ojalá Symphonic Creation Award 2018 (Cuba); International Composition Contest for String Quartet “Nuestra América” 2019 (Mexico); and winner of Conmutaciones Scholarship 2019, sponsored by AHS (Cuba). Jorge’s music has also been performed in Holland, Germany, Italy, Costa Rica, Mexico and the USA.
Dance music came as naturally to Bach as cantatas and chorales, and thus it is no surprise that his six Suites revolve entirely around dance forms, which, though officially “French”, actually draw on folk music sources from all over Europe. Indeed all six of them, for the most part, follow exactly the same multi-movement structure: a prelude, then an allemande, a courante, and a sarabande, followed by a pair of then-modish dances in the genuinely-French galant style: either a pair of minuets, or gavottes, or, in the case of the Third Suite, a pair of bourrees. And then, in each of the six Suites, Bach wraps things up with a strident gigue. Luxurious, vast in expressive scope, and lustily acrobatic, this Third Suite is nothing less than a feast for the senses, showing once and for all that The Cantor of Leipzig really was a man for all seasons.
– Alexander Platt
Composer Jorge Amado supplies the following notes about his recent work for Cello Quintet, Relatos mágicos (Magical Tales):
“This is a work commissioned by the Catalyst String Quartet and Gabriel Cabezas. I met the Catalyst quartet in 2019 through a concert they performed in Cuba. Listening to them I was spellbound by the wonderful performance of works by composers such as Philip Glass, Jessie Montgomery, among others. In that event the Havana Quartet had performed my first string quartet Tríptico Cubano, which from my self-critical perspective I considered a very simple work compared to those played by the Catalyst Quartet.
“For me that meeting with the American musicians was magical, and the fact that they contacted me later to compose a piece for them and Gabriel Cabezas made it even more fantastic. Hence the title Relatos Mágicos arose from the joy of being able to write a piece for these musicians. Unlike my first string quartet, I wanted this work to reflect a more mature vision and a more complex level of difficulty for them. Cuban identity was the main language I wanted to represent, which is presented through Afro-Cuban chants and rhythms allegorical to Santería ceremonial music. Other languages that I wanted to be present in the work is the programmatic music through the titles and minimalism, especially because of the impact I had listening to Philip Glass’ String Quartet No. 3 “Mishima”, a work performed by them in Cuba. Relatos mágicos is a title that invites the listener’s creativity, that is why I decided that internally the work should have fantastic elements, as if it had been taken from a book of fantastic literature. Relatos mágicos was premiered by Catalyst Quartet and Gabriel Cabezas on October 27, 2022 at the Basílica Menor del Convento de San Francisco de Asís, Havana, Cuba.”
Franz Schubert’s Cello Quintet in C Major for string quartet and a second cello, is in its four sprawling movements truly one of the greatest glories of the chamber music repertoire. Little is known about this, the very last chamber work he would compose—he completed it in September 1828, just weeks before an anguished death, probably the result of syphilis— except that its early history was by this point sadly typical for him: desperately hoping to capitalize on the recent success of the cello quintets of Boccherini, he offered the Quintet to his publisher, Probst, who refused it. Its first performance had to wait until 1850 (!!!), and its publication three years following. As usual, Melvin Berger eloquently summed up the majesty and mystery of this work: “Through the loftiness of its conception, the spiritual quality of its melodies, and the masterfulness of its technique, the quintet touches listeners in a very special, personal way.” Indeed, by the end of the 19th century the Quintet had taken on a kind of cult status, with the legendary pianist Arthur Rubinstein directing that the slow movement be played at his funeral. Berger goes on to say,
“The Quintet opens very simply. The four upper voices play a basic C major chord, that swells from soft to loud … Schubert then repeats the entire opening phrase with the four lower voices, playing a D Minor chord—producing a magical transformation of color and character. The music grows more and more agitated until three ringing chords announce the appearance of the second theme, heard first as a duet for the two cellos … the second and third themes furnish the motifs on which the spacious development section is based. After building to a climax that is orchestral in effect … the rather free recapitulation follows the general outline of the exposition, and the short coda whips itself up into a frenzy before fading away to a gentle ending, capped by two loud chords.
“The principal subject of the Adagio combines sublime lyricism with dolorous world-weariness in equal measure. This theme, which is played in rich harmonies by the three middle voices, moves so slowly that it seems suspended in time, isolated from all temporal concerns … The Scherzo sweeps in like a fresh breath of country air, dispelling the morose mood … the five players sound like a rough-and-ready rustic band playing a boisterous peasant dance. But the vigor and vitality do not last long: the mood alters from exultancy to hopelessness and despair, as Schubert changes all the musical elements in the Trio … The Finale is a stirring paean to the indomitability of the human spirit: after two movements of soul-searching and torment, Schubert emerges hopeful and optimistic … Just in case there are any lingering doubts as to the movement’s meaning, Schubert twice picks up the tempo in the coda, making for a brilliant, exciting finish.”
