The Isidore String Quartet, a group that’s quickly gaining recognition in the world of chamber music, is coming to Storrs this Thursday, Oct. 5. This spectacular string quartet was formed in 2019 while the members studied at the Juilliard School of Music. The pandemic caused a brief pause in their performances, but since reconvening in 2021, the Isidore Quartet has emerged as one of the best up-and-coming quartets in the country. In only two years, they won the 2022 Banff International String Quartet Competition and received a 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant. From these successes, they were given the opportunity to go on tour across North America and Europe, including a stop right here in Storrs.
Their program on Thursday includes Ludwig van Beethoven’s op. 132, Joseph Haydn’s op. 20 no. 2 and Billy Childs’ String Quartet no. 2, “Awakening.” If you haven’t heard of that last name, Childs is a multi-talented composer and jazz pianist who has won five Grammys for his performance, usually mixing jazz and classical styles. The string quartet performing this Thursday is a contrast in that Childs relies on a contemporary classical way of writing to paint a picture of tough moments in his and his wife’s lives.
In anticipation of their performance, I asked the quartet’s cellist, Joshua McClendon, to say a few words about the piece. He described to me how the piece is divided into three movements, each describing a different part of one overarching story. “The first movement is this sort of anxiety-fueled, very fast and very harsh movement that details Billy getting the phone call that his wife was in the hospital, suffering from pulmonary embolism.” Pulmonary embolism is a life-threatening disease that often appears with no warning, causing a terrifying experience for anyone. The music mirrors this fear with fast and frantic notes.
“The second movement depicts Billy in the hospital, very clearly disoriented… there are a lot of compositional techniques that he uses to actually depict the sounds of the hospital machines.” Thankfully, Childs’ wife eventually recovered, inspiring Childs to create a brighter final movement. “The last movement is this beautiful love song in a way between Billy and his wife that is highlighted by a conversation between the first violin and cello to really give you the sense of what it was like for Billy and his wife to come to terms with what had happened.” McClendon finished his description of the piece by saying it’s one of the quartet’s favorites to perform because it has a stark ability to recreate the same emotions that Childs felt in the Isidore’s audiences.
In addition to Childs, the string quartets by Haydn and Beethoven are classics of the genre, made by some of the most famous and important composers in history. Members of the Isidore Quartet describe themselves as “approaching the established as if it were brand new, and the new as if it were firmly established.” Seeing as how these pieces all but define the very idea of the string quartet, it will surely be interesting to see the group’s take on them. The evening promises both powerful, sad emotions as well as triumphant ones.
If you want to go on an emotional rollercoaster this Thursday courtesy of the Isidore Quartet, then get your tickets now at jorgensen.uconn.edu. Don’t forget: all students with a UConn ID have free admission through the Lenard Chamber Music Endowment Fund.