The Emerson Quartet at Tanglewood: Mozart, Adès, and Late Beethoven, the B Flat Op. 130 with the Große Fuge, by Michael Miller

The Emerson Quartet. Photo Lisa-Marie Mazzucco.

Emerson String Quartet
Ozawa Hall, Tanglewood
Thursday, July 5, 8 pm

Mozart – Quartet No. 21 in D, K.575
Adès -  Four Quarters, for string quartet
Beethoven – Quartet No. 13 in B-flat, Op. 130, with original Große Fuge Finale, Op. 133

The Emerson Quartet have been among Tanglewood’s most admired attractions for many years now. A cloud of nostalgia is beginning to gather over them right now, since it has been announced that cellist David Finckel will be leaving the group at the end of 2012-13. He will be replaced by Paul Watkins, so it is clear that the quartet has no intention of disbanding. However, it will be the end of what is not quite the founding members. Philip Setzer and Eugene Drucker actually founded the quartet in the American bicentennial year. Violist Lawrence Dutton joined them in 1977, and David Finckel in 1979. In their announcement of the change, it was mentioned that they saw it as a “chance to reassess our goals and articulate a new vision for the future…” Things will be different, when Mr. Watkins arrives. 

Read the full review on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!