Going “Home”

We are now in the middle of the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, the first couple of weeks already filled with vibrant and memorable performances. It’s been such a delight to have actual audiences in the seats, both for us and for the artists. While it’s wonderful to be able to offer virtual concerts, let’s be honest, nothing beats the experience of live, in-person performances.

Looking ahead we have some phenomenal artists arriving in Rockport, bringing with them intriguing programs to explore. This coming weekend the Miró Quartet is joined by the dazzling clarinetist Anthony McGill for Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet in B minor, a collaboration we are eagerly anticipating. Before McGill joins them, the Miró will be giving the New England premiere of an extraordinary new work, Kevin Puts’ “Home”. The piece, co-commissioned by Rockport Music, finds the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer exploring out-of-the-box techniques to achieve his vision. In particular, Puts has the entire quartet retuned to C major so the notes “would resonate in a way that the normal tuning might not resonate.” This change to an alternative tuning and the resulting warm resonance actually inspired the entire theme of the piece, that of the concept of home and how it relates to the refugee crisis happening across the globe. Puts eloquently describes what was in his head as he composed the work:

“I had a sonic vision in my head for something that was very warm and rich and comforting…It felt like an idealized version of ‘home’, of what ‘home’ means to many of us in the best of possible circumstances. And then I started thinking about the immigration crisis all over the world and the horrifying photos and stories of families displaced and looking for a new place to live… Syrian refugees in boats arriving on beaches, exhausted and uncertain of their futures.  That’s a reality that I’ve never faced. I could never express that feeling because it’s not something I’ve experienced, but perhaps I could do something abstractly about the notion of feeling homeless or feeling unmoored, or feeling like there’s no ground under you and the search for something stable and real. And so that’s how the piece was conceived.”

The following month, on September 10, the concept of “home” is conjured again, but this time it’s that of a homecoming, a reunion as Artistic Director Barry Shiffman rejoins his friends in the St. Lawrence String Quartet (of which he was a founding member). Shiffman is approaching the concert with great anticipation. “Making music again with the St. Lawrence Quartet is a very special event for me,” says Shiffman. “Having spent seventeen years together there is still a sense of natural ease of communication that is very rare.”

In keeping with the theme of “home,” Shiffman and the St. Lawrence will perform a work from a composer who is near and dear to their hearts–Osvaldo Golijov—and his “K’va Karat”, a movement in his larger piece from 1994 entitled The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind.  “The relationship the quartet has with the music of Golijov is one that began at Tanglewood back in 1992,” says Shiffman. “He is one of the St. Lawrence ‘family’ and I am so excited to present his K’va Karat in this new version for quartet and solo viola [the original was for quartet and clarinet]. Osvaldo will join for the rehearsals and concerts and it will be like stepping back in time as we delve into his music together. There is a kind of reckless abandon that has always been part of the ethos of the SLSQ in performance and I am eager to tap into that again.” Rest assured, Barry. We are eager to hear you reunite with them as well.