Are You a Slammer? The Colorado Haydn Quartet Slam
By Marc Shulgold
It’s hard to explain our fondness for complete sets of things, but it is an inescapable craving: possessing all of the Beatles LPs (or the glorious CD box), Beethoven’s nine Symphonies, Shakespeare’s plays, the full set of “Star Wars” characters pictured on Pepsi cans (don’t laugh — my son proudly displayed them back in the day). Filling our book shelves with such items is one thing. But establishing a concert series featuring live performances of the complete this-or-that is quite another. It takes planning, preparation, promotion — and, above all, sheer chutzpah.
Many an orchestra has traversed the Beethoven Nine over the course of a season. Not terribly bold a concept. It’s more brazen when a survey is compressed in time, such as a Baroque orchestra cranking out Bach’s six “Brandenburg” Concertos in one sitting. Our own Colorado Symphony delivered the four symphonies of Brahms and Schumann each in one weekend. Former CSO music director Jeffrey Kahane was soloist in the five Beethoven Piano Concertos in a three-day span. I remember writing about a quirky fellow in California who played the 32 Beethoven piano sonatas straight through!
Which brings us to Joseph Haydn, and a bold undertaking instituted by two local viola players (no viola jokes, please). Haydn virtually defined the word prolific. He just could not stop composing during the bulk of his 77 years, penning dozens of sonatas, operas, sacred works, plus 104 Symphonies and more than 120 Trios for an extinct contraption called the Baryton (don’t ask). Oh yes, and 83 brilliant, ground-breaking String Quartet.
Surely, no one would dare attempt to serve up all those Quartets. “Ha!!,” says Barbara Hamilton.
The artistic director of the Colorado Chamber Players, and her partner in crime, violist Catherine Beeson, are heading a project to present every one of those Quartets. Does the number 83 intimidate them? Not a chance. On the contrary — this is fun! As evidence, check out the name of the survey: the Haydn Quartet Slam. And those who attend these events? They will henceforth be known as Slammers.
Considering the cheerfulness of most of the Quartets, choosing a light-hearted name seems appropriate. Still, any way you look at it, 83 is a lot of String Quartets. Thankfully, they won’t all be presented in one weekend — nor even in one year. Actually, the HQS is well underway.
“It started in September, 2012,” Hamilton said, “and will finish in December of this year.” That’s a span of 15 months, with concerts sprinkled among 35 venues. The idea, she said, came out of a series of Facebook exchanges with Beeson that began a year ago. “We all had this idea,” Hamilton said, declining to give or take full credit. Both women were inspired by a similar survey organized by the Iowa-based Maia Quartet. “They did a community-wide festival in 2009,” Hamilton noted.
The HQS follows that community-oriented format. The participating groups are broken down thusly: Four members of the Colorado Chamber Players will perform 16 Quartets, a small ensemble from the Colorado Symphony will offer nine, a contingent from Denver Eclectic Concerts will play the set of six “Sun” Quartets of Opus 20. Other foursomes include three groups from the Colorado School of Mines, the St. Lawrence String Quartet (appearing in a Friends of Chamber Music concert at DU in late April) and a handful of players from the Lamont School’s Pre-College Academy (during the June 17-30 summer intensive). “Plus, we have five middle school and high school groups studying them,” Hamilton said. One is cutely named the Haydn Seek Youth Quartet.
While playing Haydn’s music is a joy, you’d think that setting up a Quartet festival could have produced serious migraines. Not so, she replied. “It was so much fun to put it together.” Really? Fun? Imagine the complexities of enlisting numerous professional and amateur quartets, juggling performing schedules, negotiating and/or assigning specific works for each group and, last and certainly not least, finding appropriate concert spaces for all those concerts. Hamilton seemed unfazed. “The distribution (of the 83 among the performers) went well, actually. There were some early claims for certain programming that we were able to accommodate — and, in fact, not all future concerts have been set. We’re planning a super-Slam weekend in the fall.”
Among the Quartets are individual works that are familiar to chamber-music fans (the “Lark” and the “Sunrise” to name two). One of them , the “Emperor,” contains a melody that became the Austrian National Anthem, later appropriated by the Germans as their anthem, Deutschland űber alles..Those who’ve studied the birth and evolution of the string quartet know that Haydn and his dear young friend Mozart combined their talents to create a genre that would change the face of music. Most of Haydn’s Quartets consist of marvelous, smile-inducing melodies — they’re just not that well-known, even to Hamilton and friends. “We’re getting to know pieces we didn’t know before,” she admitted. “There is a strong educational element in all this. These are important works that have inspired serious study,”
There is an educational element in all this music-making. The HQS includes a charming outreach presentation designed to introduce the composer, his music and his times to curious young audiences. “Our ‘Revolutionary Times’ program gives a context to the music,” Hamilton said. Cleverly incorporating live music-making (Haydn’s Quartet Opus 1, No. 2) with a delightful script, by Buntport Theatre’s Josh Hartwell, performed by two actors and a trunkful of puppets, “Revolutionary Times” tells the story of two contrasting contemporaries, both born in 1732: Haydn and George Washington. That program will be presented in several venues during the year, including an April 21 appearance in Brighton.
There’s a lot of music, a lot of information and a lot of fun in this Slam. Rather than offer a lengthy list of upcoming performances, we’ll point interested Slammers to a Facebook page that contains concert information, photos of the participants, audience comments, etc. To view upcoming performances, click “Events” near the top. Here’s the link to that page.
Happy Slamming!
