Haydn Voyages: Music at the Maritime

Haydn Voyages: Music at the Maritime

The Hausmann Quartet and Maritime Museum of San Diego are excited to partner to present the tenth season of Haydn Voyages: Music at the Maritime, a quarterly concert series performed aboard one of the Museum’s ten historic world-class vessels, the 1898 steam ferryboat Berkeley that operated for 60 years on San Francisco Bay.

Concerts aboard the Berkeley, also a National Historic Landmark docked in downtown San Diego next to Star of India, explore the evolution of the string quartet through the lens of Joseph Haydn's quartet cycle.

The programming and performances by this accomplished young foursome set his works alongside those of master composers from our own era and stretching back to Haydn’s musical ancestors. As the father of the string quartet and one of history's most innovative composers, Haydn is an ideal guide to this exploration of some of the most powerful, creative music ever written.

All concerts are Sundays at 2:30 pm. Each creative program will include informative and entertaining commentary between selections from noted UC Santa Barbara musicologist Derek Katz.

January 26 – Sonic Explorations

Missy Mazzoli’s Enthusiasm Strategies (2019) opens our tenth season, and her words offer a fitting framing: she describes music as “a way of setting the world in order, a method of carving up time in way that, seemingly by magic, changes our frame of mind, energizes us, and gives us courage and reassurance.” Haydn’s quartets certainly fit that description, and his opus 33, no. 1 featured on this program is a sparkling example. The second half of this concert features two works that were composed a few years apart in the 1920’s, though the revolutionary sonic worlds they inhabit are distinct; Julian Carrillo’s 150th birthday would be two days after this concert, and his third quartet (Two Sketches) is part of his exploration in microtonal music. Janacek’s first quartet was inspired by Tolstoy’s Kreutzer Sonata and is one of the 20th century's masterpieces.

April 27 – Obsession

John Adams has spoken about his obsession with Beethoven, “music that we love so much that we kind of want to get under the skin of that composer.” Adams and Beethoven will both be featured on this program as the Hausmann Quartet continues their survey of Beethoven’s late quartets with his opus 127. Haydn is represented with this opus 76, no. 2, the very first Haydn quartet the Hausmanns performed together, 20 years ago!

September 14 – Echoes and Evolution

This dramatic concert features dialogues from around the world and through centuries, with one of Haydn’s earlier quartets (op. 17, no. 3) leading to Shostakovich’s brief but powerful Seventh Quartet, written in 1960 during a time of personal and political turmoil. After intermission we turn to the New World, with works by Aaron Copland (Two Pieces from 1928) and Cuban-American visionary Tania León’s Esencia (2009), which weaves together traditions from throughout Latin America with infectious rhythmic energy in León’s unique tonal language.

November 9 – Folk Songs

The tenth season of Haydn Voyages will conclude with a concert rooted in folk and indigenous traditions, which have been a constant source of inspiration and allusion for classical composers across the centuries. Bela Bartok’s Fifth Quartet anchors this program’s journey through time and place.

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Haydn Voyages is generously underwritten by pH Projects, with additional support from the City of San Diego's Commission for Arts and Culture and The Conrad Prebys Foundation.