The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical music: The Ancora String Quartet closes its 14th season this Friday and Saturday nights in Janesville and Madison with works by Beethoven, Brahms and Shostakovich.

By Jacob Stockinger

The critically acclaimed Madison-based Ancora String Quartet (below) will present two concerts this weekend to close its 14th season.

The two events are:

A FREE performance this Friday night, May 22 at 7:30 p.m., at the Janesville Woman’s Club Association. Donations will be gratefully accepted.

A ticketed performance on Saturday night, May 23 at 7:30 p.m., in the Landmark Auditorium in the meeting house of the First Unitarian Society of Madison (below), designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, at 900 University Bay Drive, in Madison.

Tickets are general seating and available at the door. They cost $15 for the general public, $12 for seniors and students, $6 for children under 12.

The program includes:

The Quartet No. 1 in C major, Op. 49, by Dmitri Shostakovich, which presents the composer’s trademark quirkiness in fresh, innocent and fantastical form.

The String Quartet No. 11, Op. 95, “Serioso” Ludwig van Beethoven, where the terse energy is lightened by a melting, lilting Allegretto.

The String Quartet No. 3 in B-Flat Major, Op. 67, by Johannes Brahms, where the beautiful lyricism of the composer’s final string quartet closes with a delightful Theme and Variations movement. (You can hear the theme-and-variations movement, as performed by the Jerusalem String Quartet, in a YouTube video at the bottom.)

A reception will follow the concert.

Current members of the Ancora (below, in a photo by Barry Lewis) are cellist Benjamin Whitcomb, who teaches at the UW-Whitewater; violinist Robin Ryan, left) and violist Marika Fischer Hoyt, who also plays with the Madison Bach Musicians and Madison Symphony Orchestra, and is a weekend host for Wisconsin Public Radio.

With first violinist Leanne League on leave until next fall, we are excited to work this spring with guest violinist Eleanor Bartsch (below), a University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music graduate and a musician of superb musicality with an impressive resume and a devoted local following.

The members’ credentials include degrees from the Indiana University School of Music and the University of Texas-Austin, as well as study at the New England Conservatory and Eastman School of Music. Individually, they have attended numerous chamber music festivals and performed across the United States and Europe.

The four players have well-established individual musical careers as soloists, chamber musicians and orchestral players. They perform constantly in Madison and beyond, appearing regularly in such ensembles as the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, the Madison Bach Musicians, the Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble, and the Bach Collegium of Fort Wayne, Indiana.