Hawthorne String Quartet & Painter Jim Shantz To Perform At Tanglewood
LENOX, Mass. - On Friday evening at 6:00 pm on August 14, 2009, visual artist Jim Schantz will create an improvisational painting inspired by the Hawthorne String Quartet's live performance of Hans Krása's String Quartet (1921).Marking the 50th anniversary of Martinu's death, the Hawthorne String Quartet will perform Bohuslav Martinu's Sixth String Quartet. The all-Czech program will also include Gideon Klein's Fantasy and Fugue for String Quartet, composed in 1943 during his incarceration in the Terezín concentration camp. Both Klein and Krása perished in the Holocaust. The concert will take place at Ozawa Hall.
Mark Ludwig who is a Fulbright scholar of Holocaust Music and director of the Terezín Chamber Music Foundation (TCMF) conceived the collaboration between the quartet and Jim Schantz. The project entitled Remembrance & Beyond: A Legacy In Music & Painting, celebrates the extraordinary creative spirit and legacy of Hans Krása.
This unique artistic collaborative draws inspiration from the life and music of composer Hans Krása. Before his incarceration in the Terezín concentration camp, Krása was among the most promising voices of his musical generation. Tragically, he, like so many gifted artists and composers imprisoned in Terezín, perished in the Holocaust. REMEMBRANCE & BEYOND is a transformative memorial to these extraordinary artists.
Upon the 1921 premiere of Hans Krása String Quartet in Paris, critics hailed the young Krása as a composer in the "company of Schoenberg and Bartok." Holocaust music scholar Mark Ludwig discovered that Krása envisioned that this composition would be performed while an artist actively painted in response before an audience. This choreography of music and color surely has its experimental roots in the Surrealist movement.
Recently, Mark Ludwig reflected on this project: "The Quartet (1921) and Krasa's vision for this composition symbolize the great promise of this lost generation. The act of painting live provides audience members with a thrilling perspective into the connections between the visual arts and music; and the opportunity of experiencing the promise of creativity in process."
