2024 ICS Winter Concert

About the music:

    The String Quartet in F minor, Op.80, dates from the closing months of Mendelssohn’s life in 1847; it was precipitated by the tragic death of his sister from a stroke on 14 May. When he received the news a few days later in Frankfurt, he collapsed in shock, then within days escaped with his family first to the Black Forest before departing for a longer sojourn of several months in Switzerland. Initially unable to compose, he sought comfort in painting landscapes. When his musical inspiration returned, he poured his grief into his most dissonant and emotionally charged composition.

   Throughout much of Op.80 Mendelssohn animates his requiem for his sister, as the work is often interpreted, with startling discontinuities and agitated clashes. Barely holding the whole together is motivic and thematic material that privileges the dissonant interval of the diminished fourth often associated with the stronger, deeper emotions. Of particular note is the jarring scherzo, which takes on a sinister, macabre quality through its driving syncopations and unrelenting chromaticism.

​

About the group:

    Adam, Kevin, Bernard, and Sean have been friends for a long time, forming bonds that help them to share music as a group. Adam currently attends Crean Lutheran, and Kevin goes to Sage Hill. Bernard and Sean, both one year older, attend Fairmont Preparatory and Diamond Bar High respectively. They all have a deep love for music and hope to have more professional and long-term development in music.