The Dover Quartet’s Camden Shaw Discusses their Upcoming Carnegie Hall Debut
“For a musician, performing at Carnegie hall is every bit as exciting – and daunting – as one would imagine. We’ve been fortunate enough in the past few years to perform in some incredible venues all over the world, and yet there’s still an aura around Carnegie that is truly unique; as we move toward the performance, we feel an anticipation that combines immense pride and gratitude with the sobering sense of responsibility: not only to do our best, but to show who we are.”
The Quartet’s program is designed not only to be compelling and musically coherent, but also to showcase something of the genre’s expressive capabilities and their own interpretative range. As Shaw puts it,
“We put considerable thought into constructing a program that is not only varied and stimulating for the audience, but philosophically representative of what our group stands for; therefore, each of the three pieces we will perform represents a facet of our group. The Dvorák ‘American’ represents our passion for romantic, lush music; the Berg, our aim to be fearless (it was the very first piece we learned together, despite its difficulty); and the Beethoven – ah, the Beethoven. Beethoven’s impact on music, and on quartet writing, is nothing short of earth-shattering, but also exemplifies two ideas that we hold dear: the relentless pursuit of artistic development, and a perfect balance between the emotional and intellectual components of music-making.
“It is the latter concept that ties the program together even more completely, for not only are each of these pieces individually significant, they are all in the same key: the Dvorák, the Beethoven, and the longest stretch of clear tonality in the Berg are all in F major. Additionally, the balance between emotion and thought is reflected in the works themselves, ranging from the emotionally driven Dvorák to the intellectually remarkable Berg, and ending with the uniquely balanced palette of Beethoven.”
Read the complete news release Here