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Four for the Road

Lydians embark on a five-year musical journey 

By Deborah Halber

They evoke fire, volcanic energy, and passion. Critics have called their music “tender,” “light,” and “nimble.” It’s amazing what Brandeis’s Lydian String Quartet can do with a viola, a cello, and two violins.

Created at Brandeis in 1980, the prize-winning Lydians—composed of founding members Judith Eissenberg and Mary Ruth Ray on violin and viola, respectively, plus Grammy-nominated first violinist Daniel Stepner and cellist Joshua Gordon—launched their twenty-eighth season this fall. It is the first full season of the ensemble’s five-year project “Around the World in a String Quartet.”

Describing the global undertaking as “a musical voyage across cultures and time,” Eissenberg says the foursome will “explore the far reaches of the string quartet literature with pieces such as Oasis, by Azerbaijani composer Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, and Four, for Tango, by Argentinean composer Astor Piazzolla.” They will perform pieces that evoke the dance rhythms of Latin America and the lilting harmonies of Asia.

“Our goal is to invite the audience to experience all the music we will be playing, from the German composer Robert Schumann to the Iranian composer Reza Vali, in the context of ‘musics of the world,’” she explains.

While known for their exploration of contemporary pieces and their practice of extending listeners’ experience beyond the familiar to diverse musical voices from around the world, the Lydians are no strangers to the traditional Western repertoire written for four string players. Indeed, previous multiyear projects for the ensemble were “Vienna and the String Quartet,” which highlighted composers from the first and second Viennese schools, and “American Originals,” featuring performances and recordings of more than sixty works by American composers. Currently they are in the process of adding a collection of Beethoven’s late string quartets to their long list of recordings.

Eissenberg is looking forward to the Lydians’ new project. “Fortunately for us, after Western European composers such as Haydn and Beethoven planted the string quartet flag, the exploration didn’t stop,” she says. “Composers continue to travel down this aural Silk Road, exchanging sounds and ideas in a bazaar of musical traditions."

In this season’s schedule, which includes performances on February 2 and April 5, the quartet “visits” Western Europe, Ukraine, the United States, Iran, Azerbaijan, Hungary, China, and Finland. Quips Eissenberg, “We know the journey will be an interesting one; we just have to remember to feed the camels!”

Deborah Halber ’80 is a freelance writer in Lexington, Massachusetts.