MoMA Summergarden premieres Boguslaw Schaeffer\'s Quartet

Juilliard Concert: New Music for String Quartet

Summergarden is part of MoMA’s long history of presenting jazz and new music concerts in The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden in cooperation with The Juilliard School and Jazz at Lincoln Center. The young virtuosi of the New Juilliard Ensemble under the leadership of Joel Sachs will perform new chamber music that has never been heard in New York, by composers from all over the world.

On July 19 there is a chance to hear the world premiere of the String Quartet No.17 by Boguslaw Schaeffer, one of Poland’s most remarkable composers. We are especially happy to present the premiere in celebration of Prof. Schaeffer’s recent 80th birthday. On the program are also works by Jorg Widmann, David Flynn (both Western Hemisphere premieres), and Daniel Bernard Roumain (New Yorkpremiere).

Boguslaw Schaeffer, born 1929 in Lvov (now in Ukraine) – a composer, theorist, music critic, pedagogue, playwright, and graphic artist – is not only a leading representative of the European musical avant-garde, with over 500 compositions in a variety of genres, but also happens to be the most frequently presented among living Polish playwrights, with over forty plays performed. Gifted with an exceptional facility for understanding the future of the arts, Schaeffer has become a highly versatile creator. His theater, guided by the laws of music, has so far found no equivalent in literature; it both captivates and fills one with wonder at its innovative originality. His achievements in music are based on a thorough attempt to exploit its possibilities, not through some short-lived innovation but through the organization of a whole new world, by discovering unknown forms, techniques, and means of expression. Placing the idea in the foreground, the composer works with unusual efficacy in creating the music itself, its substance, its laws, its aesthetic. Schaeffer is one of the most interesting figures in the development of European culture in recent decades. He creates music of all kinds, from symphonic, chamber and solo, through sacred music and jazz, to music dramas and electro-acoustic compositions.

SUNDAY,
JULY 19, 2009
8:00 PM

The Museum of Modern Art
Summergarden 2009: New Music for New York The Abby Aldrich 
Rockefeller Sculpture Garden
11 West 53rd Street
New York, NY 10019

Entrance through theSculpture Garden gate on W. 54 Street btw. 5th & 
6th Avenues.

Tel. 212.708.9400

Admission free, seating on a first come, first served basis. The SculptureGarden opens at 7 PM. In the event of rain, concert will be held in The Agnes Gund Garden Lobby.

PROGRAM

David Fulmer and Arthur Moeller, violins; Jen Herman, viola;Elizabeth Lara, cello

Jörg Widmann
String Quartet No. 3,
“Jagdquartett” (Hunting Quartet, 2003)

David Flynn
String Quartet No.2, “The Cranning” (2004-5)

Boguslaw Schaeffer
String Quartet No. 17 (2006)

Daniel Bernard Roumain
[DBR] String Quartet No. 1, “X” (1993)