2012 an Anniversary Year for the Penderecki String Quartet
This year marks the Penderecki String Quartet’s 25th in existence (and its 20th in residence at Laurier).
Plans are underway for a 25th anniversary concert at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, perhaps in October. Organizers are hoping composer Kryzstoff Penderecki will be in attendance to hear the ensemble named after him play No.3, his most recent quartet.
With cellist Jacob Braun, who joined the ensemble in 2009, violinist Jeremy Bell, who joined in 1999, violist Christine Vljak, who joined in 1997, and violinist Jerzy Kaplanek, who joined in 1987, the quartet has become one of the best chamber ensembles in the world with an annual performance schedule that takes them to stages across Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
In 25 years, they have performed many memorable concerts. Vlajk remembers one performance in the caves of Anderson Champagne Winery in Napa Valley, California: “The organization made a beautiful concert hall in the cave with about 100 chairs or so for the audience and created a stage where we performed,” she says. “I'll always remember how beautifully reverberant the sound was and moist and damp the atmosphere was—There were actual water drops coming from the ceiling of the cave so they needed to put a tarp over the stage. The "hall" was packed with people who listened with such intent. Being underground and all the extra effort required to make this happen made the event feel incredibly special. Then of course a reception followed inside the cave as well. The food was catered by Napa foodies and needless to say, they served generous amounts of champagne.”
Bell remembers a piano Quintet with Jeremy Menuhin in Venezuela: “Like his famed father Yehudi, Menuhin is a superlative artist and incredibly fun to play with. So inventive! This artistry combined with the tropical heat and scents of exotic rainforest flora and fauna made for a sensational evening. At the end of the performance someone bellowed from the audience, ‘We Love You!’”
Not all the memories are as sweet. Following an evening concert in St. Petersburg, Russia, the quartet took an overnight train to perform in Lithuania the following day. At the border, the Russian customs agents noted that the quartet was in violation of its work visa which had expired at midnight. The border guards demanded a penalty paid in Rubles. The Quartet only had Euros. “They took Jerzy off the train in the middle of the night and walked him to some deserted store in town to exchange Euros with Rubles with a bleary-eyed drunken store owner. The guards held the entire train for 45 minutes. We were all petrified that Jerzy would be working in Siberia for a few months,” Bell says.
Laurier is one of only a few universities in Canada to have a resident string quartet. The benefits for musician and institution are mutual.
“The quartets that don’t have a university residency tend to float a bit professionally. Often in this case, everyone has their own gig and then suddenly a myriad of scheduling issues arise. We also learn the most interesting things from our students who come clean to a work we’ve been wrestling with for many years,” Bells says. “I think also, that because we are a unit both professionally and personally, the students and faculty at large benefit from the way we must co-operate, share our expertise and mold a collective vision for where we are heading. I see this as essentially a very healthy and inclusive ethos that can move outwards in very positive ways. And of course the repertoire that we play includes some of the greatest masterworks in the classical cannon. To be working hard as a team to present these works to our campus and community beyond is enriching to us all.”
Plans are underway for a 25th anniversary concert at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, perhaps in October. Organizers are hoping composer Kryzstoff Penderecki will be in attendance to hear the ensemble named after him play No.3, his most recent quartet.
With cellist Jacob Braun, who joined the ensemble in 2009, violinist Jeremy Bell, who joined in 1999, violist Christine Vljak, who joined in 1997, and violinist Jerzy Kaplanek, who joined in 1987, the quartet has become one of the best chamber ensembles in the world with an annual performance schedule that takes them to stages across Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
In 25 years, they have performed many memorable concerts. Vlajk remembers one performance in the caves of Anderson Champagne Winery in Napa Valley, California: “The organization made a beautiful concert hall in the cave with about 100 chairs or so for the audience and created a stage where we performed,” she says. “I'll always remember how beautifully reverberant the sound was and moist and damp the atmosphere was—There were actual water drops coming from the ceiling of the cave so they needed to put a tarp over the stage. The "hall" was packed with people who listened with such intent. Being underground and all the extra effort required to make this happen made the event feel incredibly special. Then of course a reception followed inside the cave as well. The food was catered by Napa foodies and needless to say, they served generous amounts of champagne.”
Bell remembers a piano Quintet with Jeremy Menuhin in Venezuela: “Like his famed father Yehudi, Menuhin is a superlative artist and incredibly fun to play with. So inventive! This artistry combined with the tropical heat and scents of exotic rainforest flora and fauna made for a sensational evening. At the end of the performance someone bellowed from the audience, ‘We Love You!’”
Not all the memories are as sweet. Following an evening concert in St. Petersburg, Russia, the quartet took an overnight train to perform in Lithuania the following day. At the border, the Russian customs agents noted that the quartet was in violation of its work visa which had expired at midnight. The border guards demanded a penalty paid in Rubles. The Quartet only had Euros. “They took Jerzy off the train in the middle of the night and walked him to some deserted store in town to exchange Euros with Rubles with a bleary-eyed drunken store owner. The guards held the entire train for 45 minutes. We were all petrified that Jerzy would be working in Siberia for a few months,” Bell says.
Laurier is one of only a few universities in Canada to have a resident string quartet. The benefits for musician and institution are mutual.
“The quartets that don’t have a university residency tend to float a bit professionally. Often in this case, everyone has their own gig and then suddenly a myriad of scheduling issues arise. We also learn the most interesting things from our students who come clean to a work we’ve been wrestling with for many years,” Bells says. “I think also, that because we are a unit both professionally and personally, the students and faculty at large benefit from the way we must co-operate, share our expertise and mold a collective vision for where we are heading. I see this as essentially a very healthy and inclusive ethos that can move outwards in very positive ways. And of course the repertoire that we play includes some of the greatest masterworks in the classical cannon. To be working hard as a team to present these works to our campus and community beyond is enriching to us all.”
