>> David Plylar:
Welcome, everybody.
It's so good to see you.
We have a really exciting 
program for you tonight.
My name is David Plylar.
I'm with the Concert Office in 
the Music Division at the
Library of Congress. And it is 
my great pleasure,
along with my colleague 
Carol Lynn Ward Bamford,
who's our musical instrument 
curator,
to be speaking with three 
members of the Pacifica Quartet.
We have Austin Hartman right 
here.
Mark Holloway, violist, 
and Brandon Vamos,
a cellist. So please join me in 
welcoming them.
[applause]
I thought we'd just start with a 
kind of a conversation about
this really incredible program 
that you put together,
and then we can also eventually 
speak about the experiences that
you've had here with playing the 
Stradivari instruments,
which I know is a big draw for 
many people in our audience who
may or may not have had a chance 
to hear them,
but this is one of the few times 
you can hear them, because they
can only be played at the 
Library of Library of Congress.
So maybe we can start a 
little bit about if you want to
tell us a bit about this 
kind of  program,
which seems to have a very 
American sort of theme to it.
>> Austin Hartman:
Yeah, I can take that one.
I'll be sharing a little bit of 
this from the stage as well.
This is we've informally 
called this American Snapshots,
as all the pieces that are on 
this program have some
connection to a story or a 
vignette from the American
experience. And so we have some 
of the more recognizable things,
like the beloved Dvorák 
American String Quartet
or the slow movement
from the Barber String Quartet 
that we all know as the
Barber Adagio for Strings.
But then on the first half, 
we're also doing some other
pieces that have some 
interesting connection to things
that were happening with 
individuals here in America.
We have the George Walker piece 
that he wrote,
on the passing of his 
grandmother,
who was formerly an enslaved 
individual.
But he really wanted to pay 
tribute to her.
Then we also have the George 
Crump piece that he wrote as an
anti-Vietnam War protest piece.
And then we also have Ives 
Second String Quartet, which is
a wonderful piece that 
incorporates many tunes from the
folk canon that we have at the 
beginning of the 20th century.
And so those things will we can 
talk a little bit more at the
concert about, but that's kind 
of the general theme and arc of
the program. It's been a great 
privilege to present this,
and we're glad to be 
bringing it  here.
>> David Plylar:
So looking at the walker first,
this is a... it's such an
interesting piece it's his most 
popular piece probably probably
his most performed piece.
And George, we had him actually 
just as a if you'll excuse a
little recollection here.
About a dozen years ago,
his son Gregory premiered a
piece of his called Blue using 
their Oberlin Betts,
which was the copy of the Betts 
Stradivari instrument.
Anyway, that was I can't 
remember.
>> Carol Lynn Ward Bamford:
It was 2012, I think.
>> David Plylar: I think it 
was about 12 years ago.
>> Carol Lynn Ward Bamford:
Perfect.
>> David Plylar:
Oh, boy.
>> Carol Lynn Ward Bamford: 
They were both here for that.
It was wonderful.
>> David Plylar:
Yeah. But it was great.
It was such an interesting man 
and such a nice person.
And it was really a pleasure to 
get to hear his music,
you know, for the first time 
in that context.
But this one, 
this kind of has a nice
pairing with the barber.
They I think they were both 
originally called Molto Adagio.
But then the 
George Walker kind of evolved
into a string orchestra piece 
called Lyric.
But then, you know, 
but what draws you to this piece
or what would you like to say 
about the walker?
>> Mark Holloway:
Oh, it's just beautiful music.
It's very touching. It's very 
heartfelt.
There's a simplicity is not 
quite the right word,
but an honest 
directness about it.
It's very tender. 
I think if you didn't know it
was about his grandmother, 
let's say you would
imagine it's about someone dear 
to him or,
you know, something related to 
his family or something.
There's a lot of love in it.
And there's a glowing sort 
of love and optimism to it.
It's also has tinges of sadness 
and it sounds easy.
There's a lot of sharps and 
flats in the piece, though, so
it's not easy to play, 
which is also true about the
Barber come to think of it.
But it's funny you were 
talking about how he was here,
and when I was a student at 
the Curtis Institute in
Philadelphia 
where Barber was a student and
where my teacher taught me.
He was also a student there with 
George Walker. And I remember
him saying, you know, 
there's a classmate of mine,
George Walker, who wrote a viola 
sonata. It's quite a good piece,
and it doesn't get played that 
much. And you should check it
out. And, you know, 
I think they would keep in touch
from time to time.
>> Brandon Vamos:
You know, what's interesting is
that I was reading in the notes
that they both studied with the 
same teacher at Curtis.
What was her name? 
Sirocco?
>> Mark Holloway:
Scolaro.
>> Brandon Vamos:
Yeah, Rosario, Rosario.
Or him, I don't know.
Anyway, it was interesting that 
they both have that background
and then they write in a way, 
you know,
comparable works. I mean, 
they're both incredibly
expressive and lyrical, 
and they,
like Mark says, 
they both have a simplicity
harmonically that I think 
brings out that beauty.
>> David Plylar:
I just checked, it's Scolaro.
Yeah. Sorry. Just pull up the 
glasses.
That's how intense we 
are here.
Well, this is a wonderful piece,
and I think everybody's going to 
enjoy it.
It packs a lot into a brief 
amount of time.
And the next piece on the 
program is not going to be the
one that's listed as the next 
piece in your program.
We decided to change the order a 
little bit. So you're the first
to know. The next piece of 
the program is going to be
Ives Second String Quartet.
How many of you have heard this 
piece?
Oh, we have one. Okay.
What about the first quartet?
Have some more people have 
heard that piece than the
second. It gets played a bit 
more with the Salvation Army
component and things like that.
But this piece is a 
really kind of astounding work
in many different ways.
And it's a little bit hard we 
won't go into all the details,
but there's an element of one 
question.
What is the piece? Because 
he puts so much textual elements
into the score, 
at least in the pencil
score that dates from 1911 
to 13 or so.
That doesn't you don't hear it.
You don't play it, 
you don't say it
all these things, 
but they add something to the
piece that is almost inseparable 
from it.
And so I'm curious how you have 
dealt with those things.
Or maybe you can give a few 
examples of some of those things
that you find in the score and
just whatever you'd like to say 
about the piece.
>> Austin Hartman:
Well, I think it's worth
pointing out to give you a
little bit of back story on it.
The piece, well, 
let me take a step even further
back by saying Haydn,
since Haydn's time, 
the quartet has always been seen
as four individuals that 
converse and have dialogue
together. And it's sort of that 
narrative that I runs with to
include everything from 
conversation to discussion to
argument to fighting, 
to shaking hands,
shutting up, walking up a 
mountain and then seeing the
firmament. Those are all of his 
words.
And so that really, 
while as we talked,
the two quartets couldn't be 
more different. The first is
very accessible, 
very tuneful.
This one is more atonal and 
dissonant.
However, I think the heart of 
the piece is really romantic in
its programmatic conception, 
which is dealing...
each movement advances this 
narrative of four players kind
of basically going through life 
as a string quartet.
There as David referred to,
there are a lot of inside jokes.
What were we talking about just 
this afternoon about the one
thing is Connie Mack sliding 
into home which is...
>> Mark Holloway:
The manager of the Philadelphia
Phillies or something, or
whatever it was before the 
Phillies.
>> Austin Hartman:
And I'm impressed you're doing
this. Oh, there we go. 
There we go. Yeah.
>> Mark Holloway: At least I 
knew it wasn't the Phillies.
[laughing]
>> Austin Hartman:
Yeah. And so we've talked
about what those characters
mean. There's even a character 
that we're talking about Rollo
or Rallo, that that's my 
personal...
It becomes my personality in the 
second movement, which is very
much about a beat keeper, 
a timekeeper.
We need to move this argument 
along.
I get distracted by playing a 
violin cadenza that hopefully
everybody will move off that 
topic,
and then they shut me down. It's
a lot of fun.
>> Mark Holloway:
He mentions I think one of the
things in the pencil score is
like a la Mischa Elman, 
you know,
like meaning a romantic, 
full, rich sound to contrast
with the craggy sort of 
atonality in certain sections,
he says, is it Allegro 
[inaudible]?
At some point he wants it to be 
really. He's making up words
to try to, you know, 
words we've never seen before.
Just to try to give you an idea.
There's one I don't know,
andante con scratchy.
And it says as if
you're tuning up the
instrument, you know. And so 
there's a lot of programmatic
ideas. He quotes Tchaikovsky 
Fourth Symphony and Brahms
Symphony and Columbia
Gem of the Ocean.
>> Brandon Vamos:
Beethoven Nine.
>> Mark Holloway:
Beethoven Nine, right?
Yeah. So there's all these 
things kind of just come and go
and there are so many times 
where we're almost quite
together, but one person has 
1/16 note before.
And, you know, if you didn't 
know that, you might think that
we're not just quite together.
It's constantly like this.
>> Brandon Vamos:
Could be the case though.
>> Mark Holloway:
That could be the case.
If so, we'll let you know.
But there's nothing like it.
I've never played anything like 
this piece. It's such a
unique voice so ahead of its 
time.
So modern. So, 
you know, just if you just think
about him having made his living 
in insurance,
that he could write exactly what 
he wanted to write without
having to get money for it, 
or please anyone in particular,
or, you know, just to write 
whatever he thought was
what he wanted to write.
>> Austin Hartman:
He was also very proud of the
piece he wrote in his memoir
that this was he felt like this 
is really something that he
achieved. Also, 
Lou Harrison, the great
composer, felt on hearing it, 
this is one of the finest pieces
of chamber music that had 
happened in 50 years.
So this is a piece that has been 
revered and yet it's amazing.
This piece is over 100 years 
old, and it's going to sound
real fresh and real inventive 
and imaginative.
And I think that's one of the 
reasons why we wanted to play
it. We just, and of course, 
it's a big Ives year.
Which anniversary was it? 
The 100th.
>> David Plylar:
Sesquicentennial.
>> Austin Hartman:
There we go. And so we just did
both of the quartets
along with the scherzo at 
Indiana University as part of a
big festival of Ives.
And it's been fun to 
revisit this piece and get to
know it even better.
>> Mark Holloway:
It's a little bizarre to be
playing Ives on a Stradivarius.
You know, when it says scratchy.
I don't really want to do it.
[crosstalk]
>> Mark Holloway:
I'm holding back a little bit,
little bit, honestly, because I
want to make sure I treat it 
right.
>> Brandon Vamos:
I mean, the second movement
is a big argument,
so we're just yelling at each 
other and it's a little bit
angry, you know? But, 
yeah,
I felt that same way in 
rehearsal today as well.
I was like, well, 
I'm angry, but I don't want to
do that to the Strat.
I'll be careful.
>> David Plylar:
Just to give a little bit more
context with this piece.
So it was written, 
finished by 1913,
but it was not published until 
1954.
So it was played a little bit.
It's thought that I had heard 
bits and pieces of it in the
30s. But otherwise it wasn't 
really addressed.
And actually, Lou Harrison was 
one of the editors at one point
who worked on kind of 
reconciling scores.
And I think his contributions 
led to
updates by like 1970 or so.
And so there's been 
lots of contributors over the
years to try to get this piece 
to a state where you can kind of
do something with it and one of 
the things that I just want to
mention also that you kind of 
miss with that,
with not seeing the score in 
front of you is that he does
write in these little things 
that are just there.
They're just subtle things. But 
things like,
here, we can agree on that.
And suddenly you have a C major 
chord,
like just briefly, 
and then things move on.
But there are these wonderful 
things that are just like,
he's speaking to the musicians 
kind of through this.
And there's a little bit of a 
slightly misogynistic tone to
what he's doing also because
he's talking about, 
he was concerned about the
emasculation of
string quartet or chamber
music and things like that. And 
that was he wanted to write
a work in kind of working 
against that.
And so that's in somewhat 
of a rage against that.
And so that was but
that was his point of view.
And so that was based on his 
going to quartet concerts and of
course, not having much of his 
music played at that point.
>> Mark Holloway:
The Heisel Quartets was...
>> David Plylar:
Yeah, exactly. So anyway,
it's a fascinating piece.
I'm so glad you're playing it, 
because we don't get to hear it
that often. And so it's really a 
pleasure.
Then we move
to the George Crumb,
who just passed away a couple of
years ago,
but has been always been a 
friend of the Library of
Congress. We premiered 
Ancient Voices of Children here.
But we're going to hear 
Black Angels tonight.
And we're happy to say that 
that George Crumb's collection
is at the Library of Congress.
And so you can come check it out
anytime you'd like.
And, you know, get to know him 
as a composer and a person,
and also to see his beautiful
scores in the way that he 
constructs them.
But this is such an 
interesting piece because
it's like with his piano 
works that have amplified piano,
he wanted to have an amplified 
kind of electric string quartet.
And so, you know, 
when this piece came out,
I think it galvanized a lot of
musicians into wanting to play 
this kind of music and kind of
go. So maybe you can speak 
a bit about your
experiences with the piece.
And I believe that 
you may have had experience
with George Crumb yourself, 
and so I'd be curious
to hear about that.
>> Brandon Vamos:
It's funny you say that because
I remember as a student in the
80s, you know, it was still it 
was,
you know, I guess it was how old 
at that point,
15, 10-15 years old.
But it was such a cool 
piece for the college students,
you know, with the
electric quartet and all
the different 
sounds and things that are going
on in this piece. And it's 
theatrical,
and it was so different than 
even the other modern music that
we were interested in at that 
time, but really kind of
captured that imagination for 
young people.
>> Mark Holloway:
I find it really interesting,
of course, when we're playing
Mozart and Haydn and Beethoven, 
we're thinking in the moment and
every performance is different. 
And there's,
you know, someone might take a 
little extra time somewhere they
don't usually or
maybe the certain hall you're
playing in has a little extra 
resonance, so you wait a little
longer before continuing.
So there's always a little bit
of an improvisatory feeling when
you're playing chamber music or 
just music in general. But with
this piece, it really feels 
improvisatory and so,
so different every time we play 
it. Because
there is, you know, 
there are a lot of numbers. You
have to wait seven seconds here,
13 seconds there.
You play for seven seconds
and in the middle, somebody comes
in there
and also there's a squiggly line 
like this. And you have to start
on a C and end on an F.
But how you get there is so 
different every time. And
depending on how that person 
hits the gong or hits the water
glass, maybe you wait a little 
longer. So every performance
really feels very different. And 
that's kind of fun. I get
a lot of inspiration from jazz 
just as a listener, and so I
feel a little bit like I can be 
improvisatory more
so than usual in this piece.
>> Brandon Vamos:
I mean, as a player,
it's really challenging because
we're used to just focusing on 
our instrument.
You know, I play the cello and I 
practice every day,
and we go play the piece.
In this piece, you're hitting 
gongs,
you're bowing gongs, 
you're bowing glasses,
you're using thimbles on the 
strings.
You're playing backwards where 
the bow is the opposite of the
fingers, which is an incredibly 
challenging thing to do.
You know, he's trying to imitate 
the old
consort. And so there are 
times where you don't feel like
you're playing in a string 
quartet.
You're so active and 
you've got to keep your brain
ready for the next thing.
Pick up the maraca or whatever 
it is.
So it's really pretty engaging 
for the performer
and keeps you on your toes.
>> Austin Hartman:
And because it's amplified,
everything we do on stage,
if we kick something, 
it's out there.
>> Carol Lynn Ward Bamford:
This is the one piece that they
won't perform with our strats.
[laughing]
Just so you don't worry.
>> David Plylar:
You know, in a way,
crumb has, of course,
this great percussion background
and importance in the history of
percussion music in the 20th and 
21st centuries.
And it kind of treats you as a 
percussionist,
because percussionists are 
always the people who have to
play every weird instrument that 
he throws at you.
But there's something kind of 
refreshing.
You're like you're 
one of them.
And so the fact that
you have to kind of master
playing crystal glasses and 
bowing them together
so precisely as you do, 
it's really like it's I don't
know, it seems like it 
builds you up as a musician.
I would imagine for sure.
>> Brandon Vamos:
Yeah. We had to ask,
even, like bowing a gong,
you know, it seems like the 
simple thing, but you have to,
like, hit it at the right spot 
and you have to grab hold on to
it like this. And so I had to 
initially had to ask a
percussionist, like, 
how do you do this effect?
Because they
utilize stuff like that.
They have so many different 
talents
but yeah, it's not easy.
>> Austin Hartman:
Yeah. And then of course the
crystal glasses just getting the
right pitches. So you know, 
all of us had so I think we all
went into the goodwill and took 
our bows and started bowing
glasses to find the exact 
correct pitches,
because the more water you add 
to it makes it the sound harder
to produce. So we're really 
looking for glasses that are as
about as pure in pitch as pitch 
as possible
to get the most pure sound.
>> Brandon Vamos:
Get some funny looks.
I think I went in, 
we were at Target.
Like, what are you doing there? 
You know.
>> Mark Holloway:
I was cheaper. I went to
goodwill and bought used
glasses. And I brought a 
pencil just to,
you know, to clang the glass in 
here.
And I would sort of wait until 
nobody else was in the row,
and then I would, 
you know, do this because I look
like a crazy person, 
like ding ding,
ding. If they're not 
quite the right
pitch, you can add water to them
to adjust the pitch slightly.
Of course you don't want to 
have to add too much water,
because I think it affects the 
resonance of the glass and the
purity of the sound.
And also, you don't want to have 
any water splashing on your bow
as you're drawing it, 
because then it doesn't
make it as what pitch it is. I 
guess you won't hear anything.
[laughing]
>> David Plylar: Austin, 
did you, if I recall correctly,
did you have an experience
working on this piece with
George Crumb?
>> Austin Hartman:
And I think, yeah,
I did in my former quartet I
know Pacifica did as well.
And both... I mean, 
what a great guy
who not only taught us the 
piece, but just taught us the
beauty of composition.
He was a real great mentor.
Really great to work with.
And it's very meaningful to 
present this piece as someone
that has engaged with this piece 
with him.
It feels personal in a 
really neat way.
It's similar for you guys.
>> Brandon Vamos:
Oh, yeah. I mean,
it's just amazing to have
them. It was
work on and ask him questions 
and see how,
you know, having him in the 
hall,
adjusting the sound he was very 
interested
in the sound we were getting. He
wanted it really loud. He kept
saying, it's got to be louder. 
It's got to fill up the space.
You know, it's got to be almost 
too intense,
you know? And that's something 
that never happens at a quartet
concert. So it was interesting 
to see how.
And then he was kind of even 
like,
you know, there's always... I 
always find working with
composers is always sort of a 
improvisatory feel about like
the music, you know, 
like it's not set in stone.
And I remember him saying, 
well, you could work on the
thimbles. You know, 
try it this way.
Maybe closer to this part of
the fingerboard.
You know, and he was like, 
just listening for a certain
sound that maybe that changed 
from when he originally wrote
the piece. So it's just very 
cool to have that experience.
>> Austin Hartman:
We were having fun just before
we came in here looking at his
sketches of the piece.
First of all 
the piece itself,
if we were to play off the 
parts,
it would look like oversized 
newspapers on our stand.
So we found ways to make it so 
that we can see over the top and
see each other. But you can see 
what you see in the case in some
of the more finished stuff, 
is what we read off of.
So we don't have individual 
parts like we usually play with.
We're playing offs, 
this sort of masterpiece of
visual expression. So sometimes
all the staffs will come,
staffs will come together, 
sometimes a staff will be
floating up here and that's, 
you know,
and so it's a visual masterpiece 
as well as a musical one.
But as to Brandon's 
point,
if you look in the case, 
we were all laughing.
There's a place that he writes 
and crosses a man saying too
clever, and it must be some sort
of joke he had with himself.
[laughing]
>> Brandon Vamos:
I mean, it really is like art.
I have it in my studio at 
school.
I just have the big score out 
because it's just so fun to look
at the way it's just comes 
together.
I mean, the music makes perfect 
sense, but then you look at it
and it's just so beautifully 
like his writing
to the way he
shapes everything.
>> Austin Hartman:
I'll say more about this at the
concert, but it's based on a lot
of numerology, and you can even 
see that his computation in the
sketches out there of how he 
gets from one section.
Lot of seven and 13, 
those were the two big numbers,
seven being sort of the number 
of completion, the God number,
13 being unlucky and more the 
evil number and those two
numbers war at each other.
We even speak that number in 
many different languages.
Swahili, Korean, Japanese,
Russian, French.
>> David Plylar:
Wow. Well, I mean,
one last thing I would just
mention is that speaking about 
him listening to the music in
the well while in the audience,
it's really important to note 
that he is thinking about the
sound always. I mean, 
every composer is,
but there's something about his 
ability to create exactly the
sounds he wants with percussion 
instruments to make certain
types of orchestrational things 
happen.
And one of the great moments I 
think, or great sections
is the crystal glass bowing 
section,
where the cello has this 
wonderful solo and the cello
sounds like kind of like the
crystal glass. Like
you're a giant crystal glass 
that that is resonating a bit
more intensely than the rest.
But it's this wonderful 
interaction of sounds and
very intentional, 
I mean, clearly,
but it just I always 
marvel at it
how clear he was and
how he was able to achieve that 
with,
you know, with
acoustic means even though
this is amplified. But you know 
what I mean?
>> Brandon Vamos:
It's a beautiful movement.
>> David Plylar: Yeah. 
Maybe we should switch over.
We can talk a little bit about 
the rest of the program as well,
but maybe we should switch over.
Carol Lynn, do you 
want to talk a
bit about the instruments and
say, see how they felt about 
that?
>> Carol Lynn Ward Bamford:
Yeah. It's been wonderful.
They've been here all week 
working really hard with them.
The first part of the process is 
they just kind of get acquainted
with the instruments and 
watching them go from their own
instruments to our instruments.
And, you know, that's probably a 
pretty exciting yet daunting
thing to do to borrow an 
instrument for a few days and to
give a concert on it, 
you know,
and the concert, 
the program is just a wonderful.
And you hear these lush, 
beautiful pieces.
You hear these, 
you know, the ivs and the well,
not the crumb on the Strads.
But, you know, don't forget that 
when you see the bows in the
water. So, you know, 
how did you approach
that, you know, 
coming here and thinking,
oh, we're borrowing some 
instruments and giving a
concert and, you know, 
thinking about that ahead of
time. Or maybe you talk to 
people and their experience and
you've heard recordings in the 
past of other quartets here.
Just give us a little of your 
perspective.
>> Austin Hartman:
Well, I felt like a pianist
for the first time,
going and playing somebody 
else's instrument,
that they do that all the time.
And I had a tremendous 
respect for the fact that...
>> Carol Lynn Ward Bamford:
They have to do that...
>> Austin Hartman: They have
 to do this all the time.
>> Carol Lynn Ward Bamford:
...all the time.
>> Austin Hartman:
I think with that said,
it was incredible to come in
here and to she was mentioning 
for us the history of this
space both growing up on 
the Juilliard Quartet recordings
and the Budapest recordings live 
from the Library of Congress.
Having known these recordings 
and known these instruments
sonically, and then to finally 
be able to enter the space and
to be able for us to play 
these instruments is,
for us, really moving 
experience.
Mark, do you want to say a 
little bit about the violas?
>> Mark Holloway:
Yeah. First of all, I mean,
I was always, you know, 
since we found out we were
invited here, I was looking 
forward to this so much because,
I have a lot of friends who 
have strad violins or who play
on even a friend who plays on a 
Stradivari cello.
And there are hundreds, 
seven, 800 of them,
right? Violins that exist. But 
for violas, there are maybe ten
in the world. And two of them 
are right over here,
you know, and 
so I'm not sure I've
ever heard one live maybe 
that I could think of,
and I certainly hadn't played on
one before, and the only ones
I'd ever seen were behind glass 
cases.
And so just to when she opened 
it up and gave it to me,
it was like this sort of 
feeling,
you know, of course, 
there's a reverence to it,
but also a little bit of fear, 
you know.
But I mean, the name Stradivari,
it's something I've heard my 
entire life.
I mean, it's seen as the 
pinnacle
of the craft and the 
greatest musicians and composers
played and wrote for those 
instruments,
you know. And so, 
in some way, I owe my entire
life to, you know, 
to him, you know,
in a sense. And he's inspired 
and engendered unbelievable
music and artistry and 
craftsmanship for hundreds of
years. And so to be holding one 
of ten in the world,
and then you're going to hear it 
in half an hour.
It's sort of otherworldly.
It's oddly emotional, actually.
>> Brandon Vamos: I'm curious,
how many cellos are there?
Is it 60 something?
>> Carol Lynn Ward Bamford:
I hear numbers from 26 to 63.
We only have one.
[laughing]
It's the best one [inaudible].
And then you take that back with
you to school.
You coach and teach at Indiana
30 string quartets.
That's a lot, right?
And maybe you bring 
that to your to your students,
other sounds, other approaches, 
your experience.
Right? I would imagine.
>> Austin Hartman:
We were talking about this a
little on the first day. Mark
and I had the privilege of being 
here one day ahead of Brandon
and Simeon, and we had a lot of 
wonderful time to spend with the
instruments, and it reminded me 
of the time in a lesson when I
studied with Don Weilerstein, 
who was the first violin of the
Cleveland Quartet for a long 
time, and they traveled with the
Paganini Strads for a long time.
And he had one that I think 
he bought for 20,000 way back in
the day. But at one of the 
lessons he said,
I think for you to really 
understand how to make sound,
you need to play my violin to 
understand the Stradivarius
sound. And I remember that was a 
very informative moment for me,
just learning how to pull the 
sound and what the instrument
could do, what the instrument 
was not designed to do.
And I think it was...
Those words came to me when we 
were playing these instruments,
realizing [inaudible] are 
special in the sense that they
just soar their best 
when you let
them do their do their thing.
If you overplay them or try to 
bear down too much on them,
they recede. And so the joy of 
playing the Strad for us is to
really let them do what they're 
designed to do.
And I think in some ways that 
sounds very simple. But
as you know, we don't do this 
every day.
So we're trying to learn a new, 
you know,
it's almost like going on a 
blind date.
>> Mark Holloway:
To unlearn something.
You know, since I was 
eight years old, you
know, used to just working 
really hard and trying to get a
sound out of whatever box I had.
And then,
you know, every couple of years 
I'd get a better one and a
better one and a better one.
And the other day, 
when I went from the Strad back
to my viola,
oh, it's so hard to play and
speak, you know.
[laughing]
And up until then, 
I liked my viola.
Now I don't know what I'm going 
to do.
[laughing]
>> Carol Lynn Ward Bamford:
You have to come back.
>> Mark Holloway:
Okay, with pleasure.
>> Brandon Vamos:
That's very true.
>> Carol Lynn Ward Bamford:
[Inaudible] tomorrow.
[crosstalk]
>> Brandon Vamos:
One more day.
>> Brandon Vamos:
I mean, you see
that with your 
students today,
they're playing on an instrument
that's difficult to play,
and it creates tension.
Then they get a better 
instrument and they become a
better player because the 
instruments letting them do
things and they're exploring, 
they're able to get different
sounds and they're working less 
hard. And then so that an
instrument can actually make you 
approach the instrument in a
better way, you know. And then 
my first note playing that strad
was it was just kind of eye 
opening,
because that first note, 
I didn't have to sink in as
much. I just let my bow sit on 
the string and you play.
And this unbelievably like 
spinning resonance comes out of
the instrument. And the one 
thing that's challenging in the
strad is like trying to play 
incredibly soft.
You know, I think that's a 
challenge because,
you know, first of all, 
this hall is a beautiful hall.
And then at least this cello,
I think is such a soloistic 
instrument.
You were saying the other 
day it should be out there
playing Dvorak Concerto.
>> Carol Lynn Ward Bamford:
I said I wished
I could hear it. Yes, 
the cello can't leave the
library, and I have always
wished I could hear 
the Dvorak symphony.
Yeah, but I can't.
[laughing]
>> David Plylar:
Well, you kind of mentioned that
it has this soloistic aspect,
but what's it like playing 
together as an ensemble with
these? Because you also chose
an interesting combination.
Not that it's like we just 
don't have it as often of the
two violins. 
So we'll hear the [inaudible]
and the ward. 
And so how does it feel playing
together as an ensemble?
I mean, I know how it sounds
from the audience 
perspective, but.
>> Austin Hartman:
Yeah, I think
I guess the best way to describe
it, if we have,
let's say 100 colors, 
the strads provide us
then another 150, 
200 colors options.
So I think as let's say 
musical artists that are working
in, you know, say oil painting.
We just now have the ability to 
create an even richer shade of
blue in the sky or more texture 
in the grass.
It's just the level of quality
these instruments just allow us 
to do things.
And so it's neat to hear my 
colleagues do and try things
that they maybe would shy away 
from doing on their instrument,
but that they're really willing 
to take a chance to go out there
with this instrument.
So this evening is going to be
fun to see what everybody
decides to do in real time and 
to have a wonderful conversation
around this. 
And yet, you know,
because we do this 
professionally all the time and
we rehearse many, 
many hours every day,
we can do that, 
we can navigate that.
I think it would be a lot more 
challenging if we didn't do this
every day to come in as four 
individuals and try to sync up
these Stradivari sound. Even as 
great as those instruments are,
instruments are, it 
would be a challenge. But I
trust my colleagues very much 
and I'm looking forward to
seeing what they do this 
evening. No pressure.
>> Carol Lynn Ward Bamford:
But it's wonderful for us as
well to hear all these musicians
like you quartets like you 
coming in and playing on them,
and we get to hear all these 
different colors as well.
You put that beautifully, I 
really like that.
I'm going to use that one,
I think.
>> David Plylar: Well, yeah. 
This you're in for a real treat.
It's been really nice 
to sit in on the rehearsals and
listen to things kind of come 
together.
Definitely come together. Not 
kind of,
and so maybe we can just 
hit the second half a little bit
just to talk about
you're also going to be
playing the Barber Adagio, 
which we've kind of talked about
a little bit, but I don't know 
how many of you here know the
string quartet version?
I mean, everybody knows the...
So not too many actually a few.
Okay. I mean, it's the 
same piece,
but it's different. It's still 
something different. And you
hear, I hear, at least in the 
way you play it,
very different kind of colors 
that come through,
I think even just kind of going 
backwards, like the last
statement of the theme with the 
way that the violin takes,
there's just things about it
that are just slightly different 
from the way that you hear it in
the string orchestra version.
And is this a piece 
that you played?
You usually play it separately? 
Do you sometimes play it with
the opus 11 full quartet?
>> Brandon Vamos:
Yeah, this is actually the first
year that we programmed The
Barber and we've been playing 
the whole quartet.
And this is the first time 
we're just doing the Adagio.
But I think with the string 
orchestra version it is very
different. I mean, 
this is a more intimate,
I think even more it's an 
intimate movement,
but it's even more so as a 
string quartet.
Just four people on stage and 
something I think I mean,
I think it's one of the greatest 
things about string quartet is
how personal it can be.
And with these beautiful 
instruments in this beautiful
hall, it's like it's a really 
touching kind of thing to be
playing, you know, 
and to get to do it.
So yeah, I know it's...
Yeah, I don't know, just...
>> Austin Hartman:
I think when we think about this
piece, we often think about, you
know, say the Ormandy string 
sound very robust and full.
As Brandon is saying, I think 
there's something beautiful
about its original design, 
the simplicity of the string
quartet. And, you know, 
it's interesting, the first page
of the scores in the case out 
there of his manuscript,
what I always found 
fascinating about this piece is
the notation, the note values 
that Barbara used.
It's very large notes, 
like a lot of whole notes.
And for me, I don't know how you
guys feel. I feel it's very
reminiscent of Gregorian chant.
Like it goes, it feels to me 
looks like on the page a lot
like some of that older 
notation.
And, you know, you've heard many
different arrangements and
conceptions of this piece where 
it has been done vocally, but to
me there's a singing quality to 
this movement.
So if you can imagine this being 
sung by,
you know, a small choir of 
singers singing,
sort of a Renaissance 
style,
I think because of those note 
values,
that's sometimes a clue that 
I've looked into to think about
how Barbara conceived this.
Certainly it's no less 
dramatic,
but I think Brandon's word 
personal is a good one.
I feel it's a very intimate, 
personal piece that,
you know, it's always thrilling 
to step on stage and listen to
it and see it again.
>> David Plylar:
You mentioned of the medieval
notation reminds me that all
music was once new music.
[laughing]
>> Austin Hartman:
Very good.
>> David Plylar:
We do have a lot of Barbara's
materials at the Library of
Congress. A good number 
that you can check out.
And so you should definitely 
you'll see it in the case,
as was mentioned.
Maybe we should move as I
lose my voice suddenly.
We should move on to 
the Dvorak,
which is kind of, 
you know, it's nicknamed the
American. And so it fits in,
and maybe you can speak 
about that because
that's a piece that probably 
we're most familiar with as
audience members.
But yeah, I mean,
but it seems like it fits in
especially with the
tunes that we hear in the
Ivs and other other things.
It's just fits.
>> Mark Holloway:
Well, it's just one of our
favorite pieces.
We recorded it recently.
We've been playing it a lot this 
season and last season,
of course, we've played it years 
ago also. And
yeah, it's one of the great,
great, great string quartets 
that we're so lucky to have.
George wrote a real handful 
of quartets,
and this is the most well-known.
And it's just before he returns 
to what was Bohemia then.
And this was written in 
Spillville, Iowa, where there
was a Bohemian or Czech 
community in the 1890s.
Or at least that's when he was 
there.
And he wrote a few pieces 
there,
including this is opus 96, 
and opus 97 is the E-flat viola
quintet. He wrote them both 
there and then.
He even started some one of the 
two late string quartets,
which he finished when he got 
back to Bohemia,
and he incorporated, 
nature's sounds
and you know, 
what is it?
The scarlet tanager, this bird.
There's a bird song in the third 
movement.
And in this piece, 
in the very opening of the
last movement and also in the 
viola quintet,
you know, apparently, he loved 
trains. He loved to watch train
yards and, you know, 
industrial things like this. And
so you can hear
the rhythm of the trains.
There's sort of African 
American folk music.
Not for note, 
but an inspiration that he
thought was really the future of 
American music. If we would all
take inspiration from from 
African American
folk music and spirituals and 
that this was something that
was really unique to our culture 
that we could tap into to
celebrate us. And
so I think it's...
>> Austin Hartman:
Yeah, there's a famous quote of
him saying these exact words in
the New York Herald in the 
1890s.
And he really believed that. And
he inspired a lot of great
composers to write in that 
style.
Yeah. Harry Burleigh, 
I'm trying to think of some of
the others. William Fisher, 
I think is another one.
>> Brandon Vamos: It's a 
beautiful slow movement to it.
And I grew up in the Midwest, 
and it starts off with the viola
and second violin. It's sort of 
this lilting line that you hear
throughout the entire movement 
and the viola,
and it really reminds me of just 
like this kind of lonely,
flat landscape that I'm sure he 
was living in Iowa,
you know, just kind of just 
goes on and on and then these
beautiful melodies on top of it.
So I don't know if that was the 
that's my personal feeling about
it when I hear it, 
but that's great.
>> David Plylar:
Well, just to wrap up,
since I know you need to get
back and just kind of get ready,
maybe. Could you just tell us a 
little bit about what's next on
your agenda? I'm finishing up a 
tour, any recording projects
you want to dish about?
>> Brandon Vamos:
Yeah, well, this is our last
concert before we take a
vacation, which we...
>> Mark Holloway: 
Actually we have one
more left tomorrow night.
>> Brandon Vamos:
Oh, I was heading...
I already bought my ticket.
[laughing]
>> Austin Hartman: Yeah. 
We have a number of recording
we're in the process of 
finishing up.
We're recording all of the 
Korngold String Quartets,
along with the piano quintet and 
the sextet.
So that will be coming out soon.
This American project,
I'll say a little bit more about 
it at the concert, but we've put
together a whole series of 
concerts and recordings to
recognize in 2026 the 
250th anniversary of America.
And there's one more.
So Mark mentioned the American 
that we just released in the
second part of the American 
collection.
The first was a disc with 
Anthony McGill, the New York
Philharmonic principal 
clarinetist, that we did a whole
host of new, actually, 
five newly written clarinet
quintets that we recorded that 
each have a connection to,
again, the American experience.
One about Muhammad Ali.
One about the five girls that 
were bombed in Alabama and the
church bombing. Wonderful 
collection of pieces there.
The second is called American 
Voices, where it features again
the Dvorak American, 
along with the Florence Price
String Quartet, 
and then even a piece that we
commissioned for children's 
choir and string quartet that
deals with food insecurity.
And the proceeds from that disc 
are going to help
an organization in Chicago.
We recorded with Uniting Voices,
a Chicago based children's 
choir, and it was a lovely
project. And then the final disc 
is called American Portraits.
And it's our idea 
that we will be presenting this
in concert in the 2026 year to 
do a piece with narrator and
string quartet. And so we 
have a whole number of
commissions that will be coming 
on that particular disc,
along with the Barber String 
Quartet,
and we will also be recording 
George Crumb as well.
>> Mark Holloway:
Awesome. With those pieces with
narrator. Would they sound good
on Stradivari instruments?
What do you say?
>> Austin Hartman: I think so.
I think they would sound lovely.
>> Carol Lynn Ward Bamford:
You have to record them here.
[laughing]
>> Mark Holloway:
Okay.
[laughing]
You all heard her.
[laughing]
>> David Plylar:
Well, that's wonderful. It makes
me think I should pull out some
Korngold for you to...
>> Austin Hartman:
Well, there you go.
>> Brandon Vamos: Do you 
have any manuscripts here.
>> David Plylar: Yes, we do.
[crosstalk]
Well, I'm getting some feedback
that means we should probably 
close at this point.
Please join me in thanking
the members of the
 Pacifica Quartet.
[applause]