About
Performers: The Meta4 String Quartet – Antti Tikkanen, violin; Minna Pensola, violin; Atte Kilpeläinen, viola; Tomas Djupsjöbacka, cello.
This is a major event, as one of the most sought-after string quartets from Northern Europe, the Meta4 Quartet from Finland, is performing at the closing concert of the year for the Chamber Music Club. This is also the first time in 10 years that an international quartet has performed on behalf of the club. Meta4 has been active since 2001, and in its first decade, it won awards in Moscow and Vienna and was selected by the BBC as a "New Generation Artist." The quartet regularly performs in some of the world's leading concert halls and has recorded works by Haydn, Bartók, and Saariaho, as well as string quartets by Mendelssohn and Enescu, together with the Gringolts Quartet. On the program is "Blueprint" by the American composer Caroline Shaw (born 1982), which will be performed for the first time in Iceland. This 7-minute work is both intimate and dramatic, and it is based on String Quartet No. 18 in F minor, Op. 18, by Beethoven, which is the next work on the program. After a break, the quartet will perform "Voces Intimae" by Jean Sibelius, the Finnish national composer. Many of the Icelandic audience are familiar with Sibelius's symphonies and other works, although he is primarily known for his symphonic music and relatively little chamber music, much like Strauss. Sibelius died in 1957, the same year that the Chamber Music Club was founded, so it is fitting that the club's 70th anniversary will be celebrated with a work by this great composer. The members of Meta4 are all highly respected musicians. Cellist Tomas Djupsjöbacka is also a conductor, violist Atte Kilpeläinen is the leader of the Helsinki Philharmonic's viol section and a teacher at the Sibelius Academy, and the violin-playing couple Antti Tikkanen and Minna Pensola are artistic directors of one of the largest chamber music festivals in Northern Europe: the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, where 70 chamber concerts take place over two weeks in the peaceful Finnish countryside. The Chamber Music Club is also collaborating with the Reykjavik Christmas Market. The concerts will be held in the Nordlys. For more information and the program, please visit the Chamber Music Club's website, kammer.is
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