Winter Warmer I:
Slavic Strings

Thursday, March 6, 2025 | 7:00 PM

Hannaford Hall, USM | Portland

Since its PCMF debut in 2022, the East Coast Chamber Orchestra has electrified audiences with heartfelt, joyously virtuosic performances. For the first concert in the 2025 Winter Warmer season, ECCO members offer a rich tapestry of chamber music from Eastern Europe showcasing the uniquely expressive sounds of string instruments, opening with an intricate piece for four violins that blends Polish folk influences with a modernist edge. Dedicated to Tchaikovsky, Anton Arensky’s quartet for two cellos, violin and viola pairs cosmopolitan sophistication with richly resonant motifs from the Russian Orthodox mass, creating a soulful elegy that ends with a sentimental flourish. Finally, Antonin Dvořák’s Quintet No. 2 (for string quartet and double bass) features rollicking Bohemian dance rhythms and broad sweeping melodies, radiating joy and a vibrant, earthy energy.

Grażyna Bacewicz Quartet for Four Violins (1949)

I. Allegretto - Allegro giocoso

II. Andante tranquillo

III. Molto allegro

Kobi Malkin, Miho Saegusa, Li-Mei Liang, and Yezu Woo, violins

Anton Arensky String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor, Op. 35 (1894)

I. Moderato

II. Variations on a theme by Tchaikovsky

III. Finale. Andante sostenuto - Allegro moderato

Min-Young Kim, violin; Jessica Thompson, viola; Michael Katz and Jia Kim, cellos

Antonín Dvořák String Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op. 77 (1875)

I. Allegro con fuoco

II. Scherzo. Allegro vivace

III. Poco andante

IV. Allegro assai

J Freivogel and Rebecca Fischer, violins; Andrew Gonzalez, viola;

Rachel Henderson Freivogel, cello; Anthony Manzo, bass

Click here for

program notes

Doors open at 6:30 PM. Program run time is approximately 1 hr 45 min including a brief intermission. Immediately following the concert there will be a Q&A with the artists.

Meet The Artists

Rebecca Fischer
violin

J Freivogel
violin

Rachel Henderson Freivogel
cello

Andrew Gonzalez
viola

Michael Katz
cello

Jia Kim
cello

Min-Young Kim
violin

Li-Mei Liang
violin

Kobi Malkin
violin

Anthony Manzo
bass

Miho Saegusa
violin

Jessica Thompson
viola

Yezu Woo
violin

Meet The Composers

Antonín Dvořák
1841-1904

Antonín Dvořák was a Czech composer who frequently employed rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia in his work, following the Romantic-era nationalist example of his predecessor Bedřich Smetana. Dvořák's style has been described as "the fullest recreation of a national idiom with that of the symphonic tradition, absorbing folk influences and finding effective ways of using them."

Dvořák's String Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op. 77, was originally composed in early March 1875 and first performed on March 18, 1876 in Prague. It is scored for two violins, viola, cello, and double bass. Dvořák entered the piece in a competition and was awarded 5 ducats for the composition. The work bears the competition's motto, "To my Nation," as its dedication. Although the original work was scored in five movements, the composer later withdrew the second movement, entitled "Intermezzo," due to concerns that having two slow movements made the work too lengthy. Some modern ensembles choose to restore the intermezzo when performing the work.

Anton Arensky
1861-1906

Anton Arensky was a Russian composer of Romantic classical music, a pianist and a professor of music. He was musically precocious and had composed a number of songs and piano pieces by the age of nine. He moved to Saint Petersburg in 1879 to study composition at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. After graduating in 1882, Arensky became a professor at the Moscow Conservatory. Among his students there were Alexander Scriabin and Sergei Rachmaninoff.

Arensky's String Quartet No. 2, composed in 1895, bears the inscription "To the memory of Tchaikovsky," who was a friend of the composer's. It was originally written for the unusual combination of violin, viola and 2 cellos and carries the opus number of 35. As there are virtually no other string quartets for this combination, Arensky's publisher begged him to write a version for standard string quartet. This he did, taking great care to preserve the marvelous sonority he had achieved with the version for 2 cellos. The version for standard string quartet was given the opus number of 35a.

Grażyna Bacewicz
1909-1969

Grażyna Bacewicz was a Polish composer and violinist of Lithuanian origin. In 1928 she began studying at the Warsaw Conservatory, and from 1936-1938 she was the principal violinist of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. During World War II, she lived in Warsaw and continued to compose, giving secret underground concerts. Many of her compositions feature the violin; among them are seven violin concertos, five sonatas for violin with piano, three for violin solo, a quartet for four violins, seven string quartets, and two piano quintets.

Bacewicz's String Quartet No. 4 is the best known and most often performed among her seven string quartets. It was written in 1951, following a commission from the Polish Composers’ Union, which invited its members to take part in a composers’ competition in Liège, Belgium. Bacewicz’s piece, entered as “1951,” won the first prize. The “Brussels victory” was discussed extensively by the Polish and foreign press. In the words of the composer, "the quartet consists of three movements; its uses all instruments and the melody features elements of folklore."