Piano Quartet has new violinist, Takács has surprise pieces and Boulder Phil has a new series

By Peter Alexander Oct. 8 at 11 a.m.

The Boulder Piano Quartet returns to The Academy in Boulder for a concert featuring the music of Mozart alongside the much less familia Russian-Swiss composer Paul Juon.

The concert at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 11, in Chapel Hall at the Academy University Hill will be free, but audience members are asked to RSVP here before the performance. The works on the program are the Quartet in G minor, K478 by Mozart and Juon’s Piano Quartet No. 1 in F major, titled Rhapsodie. 

The concert will introduce the quartet’s new violinist, Igor Pikayzen, who teaches violin at the Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver. A graduate the Juilliard School and Yale, Pikayzen joins violist Matthew Dane, cellist Thomas Heinrich and pianist David Korevaar in the quartet, taking the position that was vacated by the untimely death of Charles Wetherbee in 2023.

Juon had a successful career as a teacher and composer before falling into obscurity. Born in Russia to Swiss parents, he was educated in Moscow and Berlin, and spent most of his professional life in the latter city. A relatively conservative late-Romantic composer, his music is associated with an earlier generation; during his lifetime, he was called “the Russian Brahms.”

His First Piano Quartet was in spired by an unusual first novel, The Saga of Gösta Berling by the Swedish Nobel Prize-winning writer Selma Lagerlöf. The plot concerns a defrocked Lutheran priest who is eventually redeemed after many wild adventures.

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Boulder Piano Quartet: Igor Pikayzen, violin; Matthew Dane, viola; Thomas Heinrich, cello; and David Korevaar, piano

• Mozart: Piano Quartet in G minor, K478
• Paul Juon: Piano Quartet No. 1, “Rhapsody” 

7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 11
Chapel Hall, Academy University Hill

Free; RSVP HERE

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Members of the Takács Quartet didn’t give the full program for their next upcoming CU concerts—until now.

The performances Sunday afternoon and Monday evening (4 p.m. Oct. 13 and 7:30 p.m. Oct. 14 in Grusin Music Hall) will feature Beethoven’s String Quartet in A minor, op. 132, for the second half of the program. But originally, the program only stated that the first half would be announced at the performance.

In a recent email, first violinist Ed Dusinberre solved the mystery. “We needed some extra flexibility for this concert,“ he wrote, “but have just now decided that the first half with be Mozart (String Quartet in D minor) K421 and (Benjamin) Britten String Quartet No.2.“ In the absence of program notes at the concert, he will talk about both pieces from the stage.

The program is the second in the Takács Quartet’s annual series of campus concerts. Remaining concert dates for the 2024–25 season, including a guest appearance by the Quartet Integra from the Colburn School in Los Angeles, are listed on the CU Presents Web page.

Beethoven’s Quartet in A minor, op. 132, is traditionally known as the Quartet No. 15 based on the order of publication of his quartets, although it was no. 13 in order of composition. Planned with the traditional four movements, the A minor quartet ended up with five movements when Beethoven decided to add a central movement as an expression of thanks for his recovery from illness. 

Titled “Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit” (Song of thanksgiving to the Deity from a convalescent), the central movement is a haunting movement written in the Lydian mode, evoking sacred music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The movement includes three principal elements: a brief fragment of counterpoint, a hymn-like passage, and a suddenly more energetic passage labelled “Feeling of new strength.” These programmatic and devout elements have made this one of the composer’s most recognized and popular movements. 

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Takács Quartet

• First Half to be announced form the stage
• Beethoven: String Quartet in A minor, op. 132

4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 13
7:30 p.m. Monday Oct. 14
Grusin Music Hall

Both in-person and live-stream TICKETS

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The Boulder Philharmonic will present  “Americana Redefined,” the second in their Shift Series of informal concerts presenting their musicians in unusual venues and smaller groups, at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 16, at Planet Bluegrass in Lyons.

There will be two repetitions of the program’s ideas, the first in the Parsons Theater in Northglenn Feb. 9 featuring guest five-string violinist Enion Pelta-Tiller, the second in the Dickens Opera House Feb. 19 (details below).

Promotional materials describe “Americana Redefined” as combining music from diverse elements of America’s musical heritage, including gospel, jazz, blues and country. For this program, the Boulder Phil will be represented by a quartet of string section leaders, plus Pelta-Tiller for the Northglenn performance.

Boulder Phil executive director Mimi Kruger says the idea for the Shift Series is to showcase the orchestra’s musicians in unusual venues that are less formal than their usual home in Macky Auditorium on the CU campus. The programming will also show their flexibility outside of the standard classical repertoire.

“The idea is that they can be a little bit more eccentric with the programming,” Kruger says. “The programs focus on contemporary composers, and (are) also more cross-genre. The idea is that people can get to know our musicians and these programs and composers and connect in a different way.”

The series represents a partnership with Planet Bluegrass in Lyons. All of the planned programs will be presented there, and then go on to performances at the Dickens Opera House in Longmont and other venues in the area. The full Shift Series is listed HERE.

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“Americana Redefined”
Musicians of the Boulder Philharmonic

7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 16
Wildflower Pavilion, Planet Bluegrass, Lyons, Colo.

With guest artist Enion Pelta-Tiller
2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025
Parsons Theatre Northglenn, Colo.

6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025
Dickens Opera House, Longmont, Colo.

Information and TICKETS