December 12, 2000 a concert of works by Prokofiev, Glazunov and Georgian composer Nadarejshvili Summary Facts:
Winner of top prizes at numerous international competitions, the Grammy-nominated St. Petersburg String Quartet makes its Santa Barbara debut in a concert on Wednesday, January 17 at 8 p.m. in UCSB Campbell Hall. The quartet, which was founded at the Leningrad Conservatory and has since served as quartet-in-residence at Ohio’s Oberlin Conservatory of Music, has been hailed for “stylish, supple, openhearted performances” by The New York Times. This well-knit ensemble will perform the lyrical Quartet No. 2 by Prokofiev; Zurab Nadarejshvili’s Quartet No. 1, a prize-winning work by the young Georgian composer that has received worldwide critical accolades; and Quartet No. 5, a rarely performed, late-Romantic work which will be featured on the St. Petersburg’s all-Glazunov CD, forthcoming in January. In conjunction with this event, UCSB Arts & Lectures has arranged with The Faculty Club to offer a buffet supper of Russian cuisine before the performance. Audience members may enjoy dinner at 6 p.m. and then stroll across campus to Campbell Hall. Reservations and payment for dinner are required by January 10 and may be made directly with The Faculty Club by calling 893-3096. Violinists Alla Aranovskaya and Ilya Teplyakov, violist Alexei Koptev and cellist Leonid Shukaev, then recent graduates of the Leningrad Conservatory, came together in 1985 and promptly won the first prize in the All-Soviet Union string quartet competition. In 1987, they played at the First International Shostakovich Competition for string quartets earning the title of laureate and a special prize for best performance of the required work. With these successes and positive critical reviews at home, they were given permission to take the name Leningrad String Quartet and to travel to Tokyo in 1989 to compete there in an international chamber music competition, where they won the silver medal and a special prize. That summer, they visited the U.S. for the first time as quartet-in-residence at the Muscordia Festival in Massachusetts. They followed that success by winning first prize and both special prizes at the Vittorio Gui International Competition for chamber ensembles in Florence, Italy. In 1991, they earned the top prize at Melbourne’s prestigious competition which led to intensive international touring. That same year, the quartet changed its name to the St. Petersburg String Quartet to reflect political changes at home. Sony Classical released CDs of the St. Petersburg playing the complete quartets of Tchaikovsky, Quartet No. 1 and 2 of Borodin, and Quartets Nos. 3, 5 and 7 by Shostakovich, which was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1996 and chosen “best record of the month” by both Stereo Review and Gramophone magazines. In 1999, Hyperion released the much-anticipated first CD in the quartet’s complete Shostakovich cycle, and Delos released Quartets Nos. 1 and 2 by Prokofiev and Quartet No. 1 by Nadarejshvili. For three years beginning in 1997, the members of the ensemble served as quartet-in-residence at Oberlin and toured North America and abroad performing at many of the world’s leading venues and festivals, including an opening night concert at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart series. As part of the quartet’s residency at UCSB, the musicians will conduct a string quartet master class on Thursday, January 18 at 7 p.m. at The Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara, 1535 Santa Barbara Street. This event is free and open to public observation. Presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures, this residency is sponsored by KDB Radio 93.7 FM and The Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara, and is supported in part with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, and the California Arts Council, a state agency. For tickets or more information, Editor: For photos, please call |