TGIF, Jun 19, 5:30pm
At this Friday’s concert, Violinist Stephen Redfield and The Artisan String Quartet will be playing Bologne String Quartet, Op. 1 No. 1, String Quartet K. 465 “Dissonance” by Mozart, and a Danish Folksong. Sanctuary doors open at 5:15 pm, and the concert begins at 5:30. The concert is free with donations accepted.
Program
String Quartet, Opus 1, No. 1 — Joseph Bologne
Allegro assai
Rondeau. Tempo di menuetto
String Quartet K. 465 “Dissonance” — Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Adagio. Allegro
Andante cantabile
Menuetto. Allegro
Allegro molto
“Polska”
Danish Folk song arrangement by the Danish String Quarte
Program Notes
Falla – Spanish composer. Cuatro piezas españolas, is piano suite dedicated to Isaac Albéniz. As Falla’s piano output was relatively small, this is considered a significant work. The suite reflects characteristic Spanish musical idioms and regional styles, often suggesting guitars and dancers.
Granados – Spanish composer. “The Nightingale” is #4 in his “Goyescas” suite, inspired by the painter Goya. It starts with the queja (plaint or sad cry) of the maiden. Near the end there are bird-like trills representing the nightingale, a powerful mythological symbol that represents love, longing, artistic inspiration, and the duality of joy and sorrow, in it’s melancholic song.
This year (2026) is notable in that Falla was born 150 years ago, died 80 years ago of cardiac arrest, while Granados died from drowning (with his wife) 110 years ago, due to a WWI German navy torpedo attack in the English Channel.
Chopin – Polish/French composer. The mystery of his Fantaisie is the form; a puzzle breaking bonds of traditional structure into creative drama, outbursts of passion and temperament, in a single-movement work. After completing this composition, Chopin wrote “The sky is bright, but my heart is afflicted by sorrow”. This contrast seems to be found in the Fantaisie as well.
Biography
Stephen Redfield — Violinist
Violinist Stephen Redfield was a Starling Scholar with Dorothy DeLay and received a Masters at the Eastman School with Donald Weilerstein. A prize-winner in the Colman and Monterey Chamber Music Competitions, he has performed extensively as a chamber musician, on both modern and Baroque violin. Dr. Redfield retired from a university teaching position to Santa Fe, where he’d been concertmaster of Santa Fe Pro Musica for nearly three decades. Since then, he has organized MarketMusic, a Baroque concert series in that city’s Railyard District.
In his is 45 years with the Oregon Bach Festival, Stephen has participated in numerous recordings, including the Grammy® Award-winning disc Credo. He is also concertmaster of the Conspirare Company of Voices – with whom he earned four Grammy® nominations – and the Victoria and Arizona Bach Festivals and La Follia Austin Baroque. He has led Houston’s Ars Lyrica and Nashville’s Music City Baroque on numerous occasions and is a member of the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra.
The Artisan String Quaret
The Artisan String Quartet, Patrice Calixte and Mariama Alcântara (violins), Bruce Williams (viola), and Douglas Harvey (cello), is comprised of principal players from the Austin Symphony and has become a fixture around central Texas and beyond.
In addition to many past performances at the Mozart Festival Texas and the Victoria Bach Festival, the Artisans regularly perform at the Library in Marble Falls, Texas sponsored by the Friends of the Marble Falls Library. The Quartet enjoys Quartet in Residence status at the Texas Bach Festival in Georgetown, the Lampasas County Chamber Music Festival, and the Mason Chamber Music Festival.
MidAmerica Productions, Inc., invited the Artisans to make their Carnegie Hall debut performing on the Carnegie Hall Weil Recital Hall Chamber Music Series March 22, 2012. The concert in New York was commemorated by the Texas House of Representatives on March 13, 2013, with HR 703 read into the Texas Congressional Record with the Artisans present.
Please visit the ASQ website at www.artisanstringquartet.com or “like” us on Facebook.