Ciompi Quartet Introduces Paul Schoenfield's Second String Quartet

A few years back Fred Raimi asked his boyhood friend Paul Schoenfield, who also happens to be one of our most important contemporary voices, to write another piece for the Ciompi Quartet. We have played his earlier quartet, "Tales From Chelm" many times over the years and are extremely fond of the way it blends humor with direct, serious, and powerful feeling.

This past April audiences were introduced to the result of the new commission, which was made a reality through the generous support of some of the Quartet's most loyal audience members. The result is stunning. Entitled "Memoirs," Schoenfield's new quartet is a full-length work dominated by an introspective, searching fugal idea, explored briefly in the opening movement and then more fully in the last. Between these two are three other movements that range widely in mood, exhibiting Paul's penchant for incorporating ideas from East European Jewish folk traditions as well as liturgical sources, including some of his signature wild, crazy, and very fast music. There is an undercurrent of deep feeling as well in this work that the audience responds to at the first hearing, and which we feel bodes well for the long term as this work makes its way in the world.

We have played the quartet several times since its premiere at Duke in April. We expect to perform it often in the future and have included the work on touring programs in this country and abroad in our 2003-04 season.