2011 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award Winners
Juilliard String Quartet
Friday, March 30, 2012
The Juilliard String Quartet (JSQ), while not an exclusive men’s club per se, is certainly an elite musical group where members retain a gentlemanly approach to societal interactions. First names, for example, tend not to be used in favour of a more formal salutation, as I discovered on a cold January day when I talked with JSQ cellist Joel Krosnick, a member of the group since 1974.
Throughout our conversation, he often referred to fellow musicians, past and present, as "Mr. Mann", "Mr. Adam" or "Mr. Rhodes" for example. It is a reflection of the respect members of the JSQ have for each other and perhaps, an example of why JSQ remain to this day "the quintessential American string quartet."
That quintessential moniker refers especially to the hallmark JSQ sound: clarity of structure, beauty of sound, purity of line and an extraordinary unanimity of purpose.
But how daunting is it to join such a group knowing they have that sound and you now have to become a part of it? I put the question to Mr. Krosnick.
30 centrestage - SPRING 2012
Joseph Lin (violin) Joel Krosnick (cello) Ronald Copes (violin) Samuel Rhodes (viola)
PLAYERS:
"Quartet in G Major, Op. 54, No. 1"
PROGRAM: Haydn
with Grosse Fuge"
"Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 130
Donald Martino "Quartet No. 5" Beethoven
"We used to apologize for personnel changes but we no longer do that...you don’t stick there and say ‘play as we play or otherwise, get out!’ There’s none of that; I remember Mr. Rhodes saying at a performance last year where we were giving a performance in honour of Mr. Mann of one of his great astonishments upon joining, figuring he would basically be told ‘this is how we do it’ and ‘can you play this way?’".
Like Mr. Rhodes, Mr. Krosnick found the same in his early rehearsals with the group. Founding member Robert Mann turned to him and said, "So, what do you think? Tell us what you don’t like." This fine example of musical democracy is expressed perfectly by Mr. Krosnick when he says, "You’re being asked to be sensitive enough to join the sound of the group which you’re joining and you certainly do that; at the same time, you’re being asked to bring what you have to the table and to enrich the group."
Mr. Krosnick, who succeeded his former teacher Claus Adam at the end of the 1973-74 season, is one of only 12 members in the 65-year history of the JSQ.
The JSQ’s first violin chair was once its rock of stability: Mr. Mann held it from the group’s founding in 1946 through 1997 and saw the players in every other position change at least once. But since Mr. Mann’s retirement, the group has filled his seat three times.
The quartet introduced its new first violinist, Joseph Lin, to a New York audience last November.
JSQ's touring is very limited: a few times a year to Europe and Asia punctuated with shorter trips around North America. Mr. Krosnick told me, "Each member of the Quartet teaches full-time at the Juilliard School in New York; I for example have 18 cello students at the moment. We coach chamber music and we teach our instrument there. Three of us are heads of departments at Juilliard, so we try not to disappear for longer than two weeks at a time."
It is a rare and extraordinary opportunity that of those tours brings JSQ to Brock, performing pieces from Haydn, Donald Martino and Beethoven's "Quartet in B-Flat Major, Op. 130", which Mr. Krosnick played at his very first rehearsal back in 1973.
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