Brentano String Quartet plays Mendelssohn and Haydn - 92Y, New York
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Brentano String Quartet plays Mendelssohn and Haydn

PREMIERE STREAMING
This performance was recorded on October 13, 2020 at New York’s 92nd Street Y
Brentano String Quartet

The “passionate, uninhibited and spellbinding” (London Independent) Brentano String Quartet opens 92Y’s fall season with a live-streamed program of favorite works by Mendelssohn and Haydn.

Mark Steinberg, first violinist of the quartet, writes, “Many a day of late the idea of escaping to a remote desert island has sounded enticing. It’s probably not as great as it sounds, but usually when this idea comes up, it summons along with it the parlor game of picking what to bring along. Haydn and Mendelssohn are certainly two of my “desert island” composers, and the musicians on stage with me for this concert are undoubtedly my “desert island” musical compatriots. So while I’m not quite ready to abandon society at large, I’m thrilled to have the chance to share the delight and depth in these three wondrous works that might accompany me when I am ready.”

92Y needs your help. We are facing tremendous financial losses due to COVID-19. Your ticket purchase helps sustain our beloved institution and supports the creation of new, online programming that will bring comfort and inspiration to our community. Please consider donating today at 92Y.org/HelpNow. Thank you.

  • Mendelssohn, Selections from Four Pieces, Op. 81
  • Haydn, Quartet in D Major, Op. 17, No. 6
  • Mendelssohn, String Quintet No. 2 in B-flat Major, Op. 87 (with Hsin-Yun Huang, viola)
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Brentano String Quartet

Since its inception in 1992, the Brentano String Quartet has appeared throughout the world to popular and critical acclaim …

Brentano String Quartet

Since its inception in 1992, the Brentano String Quartet has appeared throughout the world to popular and critical acclaim. “Passionate, uninhibited and spellbinding,” raves the London Independent; the New York Times extols its “luxuriously warm sound [and] yearning lyricism.”

Within a few years of its formation, the Quartet garnered the first Cleveland Quartet Award and the Naumburg Chamber Music Award and was also honored in the U.K. with the Royal Philharmonic Award for Most Outstanding Debut. Since then, the Quartet has concertized widely, performing in the world’s most prestigious venues, including Carnegie Hall in New York; the Library of Congress in Washington; the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam; the Konzerthaus in Vienna; Suntory Hall in Tokyo; and the Sydney Opera House.

In addition to performing the entire two-century range of the standard quartet repertoire, the Brentano Quartet maintains a strong interest in contemporary music, and has commissioned many new works. Their latest project, a monodrama for quartet and voice called “Dido Reimagined,” was composed by Pulitzer-winning composer Melinda Wagner and librettist Stephanie Fleischmann, and will premiere in spring 2021 with soprano Dawn Upshaw. Other recent and upcoming commissions include the composers Matthew Aucoin, Lei Liang, Vijay Iyer, James Macmillan, and a cello quintet by Steven Mackey (with Wilhelmina Smith, cello.)

The Brentano Quartet has worked closely with other important composers of our time, among them Elliot Carter, Charles Wuorinen, Chou Wen-chung, Bruce Adolphe, and György Kurtág. They have also been privileged to collaborate with such artists as soprano Jessye Norman, mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, and pianists Richard Goode, Jonathan Biss, and Mitsuko Uchida. The Quartet has recorded works by Mozart and Schubert for Azica Records, and all of Beethoven’s late Quartets for the Aeon label. In 2012, they provided the central music (Beethoven Opus 131) for the critically-acclaimed independent film A Late Quartet.

Since 2014, the Brentano Quartet has served as Artists-in-Residence at the Yale School of Music. They were formerly the Ensemble-in-Residence at Princeton University, and were twice invited to be the collaborative ensemble for the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

The Quartet is named for Antonie Brentano, whom many scholars consider to be Beethoven’s “Immortal Beloved”, the intended recipient of his famous love confession.

Hsin-Yun Huang

Hsin-Yun Huang has forged a career as one of the leading violists of her generation …

Hsin-Yun Huang

Hsin-Yun Huang has forged a career as one of the leading violists of her generation, performing on international concert stages, commissioning and recording new works, and nurturing young musicians. Ms. Huang has been soloist with the Berlin Radio Orchestra, the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Bogotá Philharmonic, the NCPA Orchestra in Beijing, Zagreb Soloists, Taiwan Philharmonic, International Contemporary Ensemble, the London Sinfonia, and the Brazil Youth Orchestra, and has performed the complete Hindemith viola concertos with the Taipei City Symphony. She is a regular presence at festivals including Marlboro, Santa Fe, Rome, Spoleto USA, Moritzburg, Music@Menlo, and the Seoul Spring Festival, among many others. She tours extensively with the Brentano String Quartet, most notably including performances of the complete Mozart string quintets at Carnegie Hall.

Recent highlights include concerto performances under the batons of David Robertson, Osmo Vänskä, Xian Zhang, and Max Valdés. She is also the first solo violist to be presented in the National Performance Center of the Arts in Beijing. She is a regular guest of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the 92nd Street Y and the Seoul Spring Festival. The 2014-2015 season featured a series of three chamber concerts curated by Ms. Huang and presented by the 92nd Street Y.

Ms. Huang has in recent years embarked on a series of major commissioning projects for solo viola and chamber ensemble. To date, these works include compositions from Shih-Hui Chen (Shu Shon Key, which Ms. Chen also arranged for orchestra) and Steven Mackey (Groundswell), which premiered at the Aspen Festival. Ms. Huang’s 2012 recording, titled “Viola Viola,” for Bridge Records, included those works along with compositions by Elliott Carter, Poul Ruders, and George Benjamin; the CD has won accolades from Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine. Her most recent release is the complete Unaccompanied Sonatas and Partitas of J.S. Bach, in partnership with violist Misha Amory. FantaC, a C string inspired recording in collaboration with the Ashkenazy Ballet and a new commission for pipa virtuoso Wu Man and viola by Lei Liang.

A native of Taiwan and an alumna of Young Concert Artists, Ms. Huang received degrees from The Juilliard School and The Curtis Institute of Music. She has given master classes at the Guildhall School in London, the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, the San Francisco Conservatory, Yong Sie Tow Conservatory in Singapore, and the McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University. She served on the jury of the 2011 Banff International String Quartet Competition and 2022 Tokyo International Viola Competition.

Ms. Huang first came to international attention as the gold medalist and the youngest competitor in the 1988 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition. In 1993 she was the top prize winner in the ARD International Competition in Munich, and was awarded the highly prestigious Bunkamura Orchard Hall Award. Ms. Huang was a member of the Borromeo String Quartet from 1994 to 2000.

She is currently on the Viola Faculty at the Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute of Music and most grateful for her teachers David Takeno, Peter Norris, Michael Tree and Samuel Rhodes. She is married to Misha Amory, violist of the Brentano String Quartet. They live in New York City and have two children Lucas and Leah. She plays on a 1735 Testore Viola.

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