Here you'll see several of the many programs we love to perform, some which are based on very specific pieces and others which are more open-ended. Among them, we hope that you'll find both a few that you'd love to hear or perhaps the inspiration to collaborate with us to create something new, whether a variation on one of the existing themes or a completely new combination of works. Or, you might do both!
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Old Vienna

Haydn and Mozart gave birth to and nurtured the genre of the string quartet, and Beethoven and Schubert set the gold standard for this beloved form for generations to come. What is it about the blend of violins, viola, and cello that is so captivating? Visit Old Vienna to find out, as Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, and other composers who drew from its pool of inspiration — Schumann, Mendelssohn, Dvorak — take you on a guided tour.
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Around the World in a String Quartet

The 2006-07 concert season saw the launching of a very special project for the Lyds, the "Around the World Tour": a five-year exploration of an exciting range of musical voices from around the globe, as seen through the lens of the string quartet. Travel with us to hear music reaching from the dance rhythms of Latin America to the harmonies of Asia to the many flavors of the Middle East.
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On the Cutting Edge

The Lydian String Quartet has garnered an international reputation for its performance of new music. You might enjoy a program of works from composers such as:

John Harbison
Lee Hyla
Peter Lieberson
Steven Mackey
Donald Martino
David Rakowski
Steve Reich
Gunther Schuller
Harold Shapero
Joan Tower
Yehudi Wyner
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The Composer's Voice

Serving almost as musical self-portraits, these concerts provide glimpses into the development of a composer's unique musical language, growth as an artist, and core creative ideas. They give us a chance to gain an intimate sense of who a composer was — or is. If you really want to know what makes, say, Beethoven Beethoven, let him take you by the hand and show you. Concerts include:

All Beethoven
The towering musical figure whose works are among the most treasured in the chamber music repertory; a program of his string quartets can be created either as a "Sampler," with one work from each of his three distinct periods, or in a concert comprised exclusively of the master's late quartets — an acclaimed specialty of the LSQ.

All Bartok
The master whose craftsmanship and emotional intensity set the standard for the twentieth century and whose curiosity and scholarship anticipated the "World Music" movement of today.

All Shostakovich
The composer who, with an unlikely combination of spare discipline, bittersweet yet unsentimental love of folk melody, and raw passion, created through his collection of 15 quartets a lasting memorial to a dark period in Eastern European history.

All Schumann
One of the greatest song-writers of all time has, in his three string quartets, given us a gift: the ultimate "songs without words."

All Harbison
With one foot in the tradition of classical chamber music and the other in the heyday of American pop, Harbison is a leading 20th- and 21st-century musical voice in the United States. He created the opera "The Great Gatsby" and wrote four string quartets, one of them expressly for the Lydians.
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Lighter Fare

From among these playful-yet-elegant works, the LSQ encourages you to put together a menu that appeals to you:

Borodin Nocturne from String Quartet No. 2 One of the great Russian love songs
Dvorak "Cypresses" The composer's own arrangement for string quartet of some of his most nostalgic songs
Ellington / Chihara arrangements (Choose from Satin Doll, Take the A Train, and more)
Victor Young / John Harbison "Thanks Victor" A medley of such gems as When I Fall in Love, Stella by Starlight, and more, all woven beautifully together by John Harbison as a special gift to the Lydians
Beethoven Alla danza tedesca from Op. 130 Beethoven's charming tribute to dance
Tchaikovsky Andante Cantabile The ever-popular slow movement from his Quartet in D Major
Wolf Italian Serenade An effervescent showpiece, a cloud of cotton candy
Gershwin Lullaby Gershwin's single chamber work, a gem — a slow, soft-focus Charleston
Thomas Oboe Lee Morango Almost a Tango Think tango with a Brazilian twist
Thomas Oboe Lee Jazz Suite Lee's tribute to some of his jazz mentors: Horace Silver, Jobim, and Bill Evans
Hindemith Concert Waltz Proof that a German can compose a great Viennese waltz
Puccini Crisanthemums Encapsulated operatic pathos
Wyner Brandeis Sunday Composed for the inauguration of a University President
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Encore! Encore! Music by Composers in their Second Half-Century

"Encore! Encore!" concerts are comprised entirely of works written during composers' later years. These works — often transformations of or new "takes" on the experiences of youth — were created by people who met success early in their careers but who were nonetheless impelled to stay engaged with their inner muse, to reinvent themselves as they grew older.
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Worlds of Ideas

In the latter part of the 18th century, in the concert halls of Europe, audiences began to gather not only to see opera or ballet but also to hear instrumental music — music alone, without words or dance. Without the overt narrative of these other genres, people were clearly listening for something else. Music, with its connections to heart, head, and body offers a source of deep knowledge. The Lydians have designed the following programs to explore some of humanity's values, ideas, and eternal questions:

Tributes

To a mentor: Mozart K. 458, "The Hunt," dedicated to Haydn
To a love affair: Janacek Quartet No. 2, "Intimate Letters"
To inevitability: Beethoven Op. 135, "Muss es sein?" ["Must it be?"]
To the American pop song: John Harbison "Thanks, Victor"

Journeys

Dvorak The "American" String Quartet The Great Bohemian composer's take on the American cultural landscape of the 1890s, after a year in spent New York and a summer in Iowa
Lee Hyla String Quartet No. 3 An inward voyage, encountering cataclysm and catharsis, accompanied by modern chant and rock rhythms
Leo Ornstein Piano Quintet Expansive, almost cinematic music, in the tradition of a Russian novel — think Dr. Zhivago! — with echoes of sad Slavic ballads, strains of Klezmer, and Eastern Orthodox chant, punctuated by driving, modernist rhythms

Conflict and Resolution

Shostakovich String Quartet No. 3 The Russian master's lament for the absurdity and devastation of World War II
Ives String Quartet No. 2 (Discussions; Arguments; The Call of the Mountains) Perhaps the Great American Quartet — Ives's visionary portrait of strong-minded individualists who come to blows, then make up and commune with nature
Beethoven String Quartet No. 15, Op. 132 At the heart of this great work, which Beethoven wrote after having recovered from a serious illness which he had feared was fatal, is the Heiliger Dankgesang: "Holy Song of Thanks to the Godhead from a Convalescent, in the Lydian Mode."

Expanding Boundaries

John Harbison String Quartet No. 3 Composed for the Lydians, this lyrical, meditative work in one movement is an epic poem, celebrating the string quartet as a unified, breathing organism
Beethoven Op. 133, The Great Fugue Beethoven's own subtitle, "Here studied, there free," barely hints at the proportions and propulsion of this fugue to end all fugues which lives in the space between chaos and control and revels in the limitless possibilities of counterpoint.
Schubert String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, "Death and the Maiden" This elegiac work, inspired by the song of the same title which he composed 14 years earlier, speaks of the coexistence of grace and power, of the timeless dance between life and death.
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The Lydians et al

The Lydians also delight in putting together performances with other musicians. Presenters can arrange either to book guest artists with whom the Quartet has worked in the past or to see about a collaboration with a local favorite — we'd love to have you talk with us about how this could work for you.
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