The American String Quartet
Internationally recognized as one of the world's finest quartets, the American String Quartet celebrated its 30th anniversary during the 2005–2006 season. In over three decades of touring, the American has performed in all 50 states and appeared in virtually every important concert hall throughout the world. Their presentations of the complete quartets of Beethoven, Schubert, Schoenberg, Bartók, and Mozart have won widespread critical acclaim. The 1998 Music Masters Complete Mozart String Quartets, performed on a matched quartet set of instruments by Stradivarius, are widely considered to have set the standard for this repertoire.

The American's innovative approach to concert programming has won them a number of notable residencies in recent years, including "Beethoven the Contemporary" at the University of Michigan, "The Six Mozart Viola Quintets" at the Aspen Music Festival with Guarneri Quartet violist Michael Tree (broadcast live nationally via Chicago super-station WFMT), and a recent four-year cycle titled "4-5-6..." at Princeton University, where the quartet performed the complete quintets and sextets of Mozart and Brahms, joined in each concert by renowned guest artists.

Resident quartet at the Aspen Music Festival since 1974 and the Manhattan School of Music in New York since 1984, the American has also served as resident quartet at the Taos School of Music (1979 to 1998), the Peabody Conservatory, and the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. The Quartet's diverse activities have also included numerous international radio and television broadcasts, tours of Asia, and performances with the New York City Ballet, the Montreal Symphony, and the Philadelphia Orchestra.
As champions of new music, the American has given numerous premières, most recently Richard Danielpour's Quartet No. 4, commissioned by Kansas City Friends of Chamber Music, and Curt Cacioppo's a distant voice calling, commissioned by Arizona Friends of Chamber Music. Albany Records released their recording of three quartets by Kenneth Fuchs in 2001. The quartet's extensive discography can be heard on the Albany, CRI, MusicMasters, Musical Heritage Society, Nonesuch, and RCA labels. The quartet is popular with national radio audiences and has been featured on Minnesota Public Radio's St. Paul Sunday Morning, National Public Radio's All Things Considered, and live broadcasts on WFMT.

Formed in 1974, when its original members were students at The Juilliard School, the American String Quartet was launched by winning both the Coleman Competition and the Naumburg Award in the same year. Individually, the members devote additional time outside the quartet's active performance and teaching schedule to solo appearances, recitals, and master classes.

Programs
Joseph Haydn                  String Quartet  in D major, Op.76, No.5

Sergei Prokofiev              String Quartet  in F major, Op.92, No.2

——Intermission——

Samuel Barber                 Adagio for Strings

Antonin Dvorak               String Quartet in F, Op. 96  

More about Programs
Joseph Haydn　String Quartet  in D major, Op.76, No.5
The Quartet No. 64 in D major, also known as Op. 76, No. 5, is sometimes nicknamed Largo because the second movement with that tempo distinction dominates the quartet both in length and in character. The work consists of four movements: I. Allegretto; II. Largo. Cantabile e mesto; III. Menuetto. Allegro; IV. Finale. Presto. The first movement (in D Major, 6/8 time) is not in sonata form, but in a combination of ternary and variation form (Heller 224). The second movement, written in F-sharp major in cut time, is in sonata form. The third movement, in D major and d minor, is a standard minuet and trio, while the fourth movement's D Major, cut time Presto is in an irregular sonata form.

Sergei Prokofiev　String Quartet  in F major, Op.92, No.2
The string quartet, lasting for 20-25 minutes, is in three movements: 1.Allegro sostenuto; 2.Adagio; 3.Allegro-Andante Molto-Allegro. Prokofiev utilized Kabardino-Balkar folk themes in his string quartet, while at the same time retaining his unique style of harmonization. The folk music character is made evident by the string quartet's imitation of oriental plucked and percussion instruments, combined with resourceful use of sonic effects. The background accompaniment in the second movement attempts to imitate the playing of a Caucasian stringed instrument, the kjamantchi.

Samuel Barber　Adagio for Strings
Barber's Adagio for Strings originated as the second movement in his String Quartet No. 1, Op. 11, composed in 1936. In January 1938 Barber sent the piece to Arturo Toscanini. The conductor returned the score without comment, and Barber was annoyed and avoided the conductor. Subsequently Toscanini sent word through a friend that he was planning to perform the piece and had returned it simply because he had already memorized it. The work was given its first performance in a radio broadcast by Arturo Toscanini with the NBC Symphony Orchestra on November 5, 1938 in New York. The piece uses an arch form, employing and then inverting, expanding, and varying a stepwise ascending melody. It is in the key of B-flat minor and is in 4/2 time, although the meter varies throughout. A typical performance lasts around 8 minutes.

Antonin Dvorak　String Quartet in F, Op. 96  
The String Quartet No. 12 in F, Op. 96, B. 179, nicknamed the American, is one of Dvorak's most popular pieces of chamber music, which he composed in 1893 during a summer retreat from his teaching post in New York. In the second movement, a listener may detect the melancholic longing of an African American spiritual, a sentiment with which the homesick Dvořák sympathized. The spirited third movement imitates the rhapsodic song of an American bird, and in the final movement, the composition strongly suggests the presence of a railway or train. The première performance took place on January 1, 1894 in Boston at the concert of Kneisel Quartet. The Quartet is scored for the usual complement of two violins, viola, and cello, and comprises four movements: 1. Allegro ma on troppo; 2. Lento; 3. Molto vivace; 4. Finale: vivace ma non troppo.