Corax Quartet: Piano Quartets by Brahms and Walton
Jonathan Wright, violin
Cynthia Fogg, viola
Roger Lebow, cello
Stephan Moss, piano
Sunday, April 1, 2018, 7 p.m.
Drinkward Recital Hall
Rocks and hills under dark clouds. Photo courtesy of the artists.
PROGRAM
Piano Quartet in C minor, op. 60
Allegro non troppo
Scherzo – Allegro
Andante
Finale – Allegro comodo
Allegro non troppo
Scherzo – Allegro
Andante
Finale – Allegro comodo
Johannes Brahms
(1833-97)
(1833-97)
Quartet
Allegramente
Allegro scherzando
Andante tranquillo
Allegro molto
Allegramente
Allegro scherzando
Andante tranquillo
Allegro molto
William Walton
(1902-83)
(1902-83)
The Corax Quartet—violist Cynthia Fogg, cellist Roger Lebow, pianist Stephan Moss and violinist Jonathan Wright—performs sparkling chamber music featuring Johannes Brahms' dramatic third quartet for piano and strings and William Walton’s exhilarating piano quartet. Like their namesake, the Raven, the members of the Corax Quartet gather to socialize and play. The raven is regarded in some cultures as an omen and in others as a trickster. It is hoped by the Quartet that their play is as enjoyable for the audience as it is for them and is in no way an omen of misfortune.
Violist Cynthia Fogg was trained at Sarah Lawrence College and the University of Southern California. Active as a teacher and performer, she is a founding member of the Pasadena Conservatory and on the faculty of Pomona College. Fogg has performed as a guest artist with ensembles, including the Alexander and Kronos Quartets, and in soundtrack recordings for movies, including “The X-Files” and “The Matrix.” She currently performs with Quartet Euphoria and Duo Celliola.
Roger Lebow’s concert life—whether of solo and chamber performances, or with LA Opera—embraces repertoire from the 16th century to new music. An appetite for new music has led him to commission, premiere, and otherwise champion numerous cello works, and to help form the venerable LA new music collective XTET in 1986. Lebow was the founding cellist of the Armadillo String Quartet and the Clarion Trio and spent several years with the Philadelphia String Quartet. His chamber music recordings appear on the Delos, New World, Water Lily Acoustics, Spectral Harmonies, and Albany labels.
Pianist and harpsichordist Stephan Moss has studied composition with Barney Childs and is a frequent chamber music collaborator in the Claremont area and accompanist in the violin studio at Scripps College. After receiving a DMA in harpsichord performance, he has been active as both an IT specialist and a musician.
Jonathan Wright studied violin in London with Bernard Partridge and has performed extensively in orchestral, chamber and solo repertoire in England and the US. He is a former member of the string quartet Serenate Strings in South Dakota and is second violinist in the Claremont Colleges’ string quartet Euphoria. He also performs regularly in a violin-piano duo with Stephan Moss. Wright has been a member of the Biology faculty at Pomona College faculty since 1998 where he is the William Atwood Hilton Professor of Zoology.