A personal note from John Williams
Prior to performing John Williams' La Jolla quartet in the January 15th concert, Wendy Putnam read this personal note from Williams to the audience:
A few years ago at Tanglewood, my friend Cho-Liang Lin suggested that I write a piece for his "Summerfest" chamber music series in La Jolla, California. The result is this quartet, which was premiered in August of 2011, making the performance this afternoon its second hearing.
When Wendy Putnam heard about this project, she offered to perform it, and during the recent visit of the BSO to California, she and her colleagues read the piece for me and I was thrilled.
Wendy, a fabulous violinist and superb leader, assembled the group composed of Mickey Katz, a phenomenal cellist and brilliant addition to the glorious BSO cello section... harpist Jessica Zhou, who couldn't be a more lustrous or inspiring successor to Ann Hobson Pilot... and the peerless Tom Martin, who over the many years I've worked with him, has never produced a note that wasn't breathtakingly beautiful.
The piece is in five movements, and as you will hear, gives prominence to one instrument or another as I explored the sonorities of this fairly unusual and captivating combination.
I hope all present will share some degree of the pleasure I've had in writing this piece, and only my work here in California... not geography, weather or football games... could have kept me away!
Again, special thanks to Wendy and I send my best wishes to all for a joyous afternoon.
John Williams
[January 20th, 2012]
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