Upcoming DaPonte String Quartet concerts
The DaPonte String Quartet (DSQ) will move to new venues in Brunswick and Portland while returning to familiar venues in Damariscotta, Boothbay Harbor, and Thomaston as it starts its 24th year in Maine this November with “Enemies of the State.” Performances will be held in Boothbay Harbor, Damariscotta, Portland, Brunswick and Thomaston from Nov. 5-15.
“Enemies of the State” features works by three composers who were persecuted, or even died, at the hands of the state.
Mozart’s Quartet in A Major is a sunny, playful piece, but according to DSQ cellist Myles Jordan, Mozart’s “radical leftist” views may well have cost him his life, as questions about how he died and whether he might have been poisoned continue to swirl.
Erwin Schulhoff’s String Quartet No.1 is “like a ticking time bomb that foreshadows his own death some years later in a Nazi death camp,” says DSQ violinist Ferdinand Liva.
As for the “gentile-Jewish composer” Dmitri Shostakovich, he was a vociferous opponent of anti-Semitism and much of his music showed clear Jewish influences, both of which were dangerous in Stalinist Russia at a time of resurgent anti-Semitism. With its clearly stated “Jewish Theme,” his Quartet in C Minor, Op. 110, is one of his best-known and reflects what Stravinsky called the suffering of the times.
The Portland concert has moved to the Jewish Museum in the city’s East End, which also has abundant free parking and is fully handicap accessible. This venue is particularly appropriate for the first concert, which features two composers persecuted for being Jewish or fighting anti-Semitism.
The Quartet’s Brunswick-area concert has moved to the new Unitarian Universalist Church on the corner of Middle and Pleasant Street in Brunswick, with abundant free parking nearby. The church, with its excellent acoustics and a tradition of embracing music, is one of the DSQ’s favorite places to play.
Performances of “Enemies of the State”: Nov. 5, 7:30 p.m., the Jewish Museum, 267 Congress Street, Portland; Nov. 6, 7:30 p.m., the Lincoln Theater, 2 Theater Street, Damariscotta; Nov. 7, 4 p.m., St. Columba’s Church, 32 Emery Way, Boothbay Harbor; Nov. 8, 3 p.m., Unitarian Church, 15 Pleasant Street, Brunswick; Nov. 15, 3 p.m., St John’s Church, 200 Main Street, Thomaston.
Tickets are $20, and are available at www.DaPonte.org, at Maine Coast Books or River Arts Gallery in Damariscotta, Longfellow Books in Portland, Gulf of Maine Books in Brunswick, or by calling 207-529-4555.
Event Date
Address
32 Emery Lane
Boothbay Harbor, ME 04538
United States