El Cuarteto de Tokio participa en el X Liceo de Cámara / The Tokyo String Quartet at the 10th Liceo de Cámara

By Álvaro Guibert
(Article published in El Cultural, in relation to the premiere of Clémisos y sustalos. Madrid, November 21, 2001)


The celebrated Tokyo String Quartet visits the Chamber Hall of the National Auditorium today, as part of a tour in which the ensemble will perform the complete chamber works of Brahms, along with world premieres such as Cuarteto by Spanish composer José Luis Turina.

This evening's program at the Chamber Hall of the National Auditorium embodies the innovations brought by the 10th Liceo de Cámara of the Fundación Caja Madrid. The two Brahms string sextets will be performed, with a premiere in between: José Luis Turina's Cuarteto, commissioned expressly for the occasion. The performers are the Tokyo String Quartet together with Geraldine Walther and Misha Milman.
This program brings together two projects jointly undertaken by the Liceo de Cámara and the Tokyo String Quartet: on the one hand, the performance over the course of the season of Brahms's complete chamber music; on the other, the premiere of four works commissioned from composers from the four corners of the globe. Both projects are highly ambitious. Brahms's chamber music is an impressive cluster of some two dozen masterpieces. Hearing them all within a few months, and in top-level performances, is invaluable. That a quartet of such prestige as the Tokyo should embark on a commissioning and premiere program of this scale is also greatly to be appreciated. The inclusion of a Spanish composer in this project is excellent news.

An international project. As for the new works, the Tokyo String Quartet has commissioned compositions from four composers: Fabio Vacchi of Italy, José Luis Turina of Spain, Joan Tower of the United States, and Hikaru Hayashi of Japan. The Tokyo will take these works to those same four countries. In Spain, the four compositions will be heard this season, framed by Brahms's music, at the Liceo de Cámara. In Italy, the premieres will be presented at the Città di Castello Festival; in Japan, at Tokyo's Konyakuza Opera Theater; and in the United States, at the Tisch Center for the Arts in New York.
The participation of José Luis Turina (Madrid, 1952) in this project is welcome news, though not surprising, for Turina is a composer of the highest prestige. Indeed, when speaking of the Turina family, one no longer knows whether to refer to José Luis as the grandson of the great Joaquín, or to Joaquín as the grandfather of the great José Luis. The inclusion of his music in the Tokyo String Quartet's repertoire will help to expand the international dimension of his career.
Distinguished musicians accompany José Luis Turina in this project. Fabio Vacchi (Bologna, 1949) studied with Giacomo Manzoni and Franco Donatoni. He first drew attention at the Venice Biennale in 1975, and the following year won the Gaudeamus Prize in Amsterdam. His opera La statione thermale has been staged in theaters worldwide. It was presented at La Scala in Milan in 1995 and the following year at the Opera Comique in Paris.

Outstanding colleagues. Joan Tower (1938) is a well-established figure in American musical life. Her first orchestral work, Sequoia, was a major success, performed by many orchestras. Today, Tower is composer-in-residence with the Orchestra of St. Luke's, and, as pianist and conductor, leads the Da Capo Chamber Players. Japanese composer Hikaru Hayashi (Tokyo, 1931) studied at the Tokyo University of the Arts. In 1989 he wrote the successful string quartet Legend. In addition to his prestige as a composer, Hayashi is a driving force in Japan's musical life. He currently serves as artistic director of Tokyo's Konyakuza Opera.