NICHOLE MCH PHOTOGRAPHY
The Erinys Quartet (from left, Stergios Theodoridis, Marija Räisänen, Elizabeth Stewart and Joosep Reimaa).
Though the Erinys Quartet is made up of musicians from four different countries, with distinct personalities, they are united by an artform that thrives on personal and social connections.
The up-and-coming chamber music group, founded in 2018 at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, will show off its stylish sense of ensemble in its debut performance at the Lot of Strings Music Festival, outdoors at The Morris Museum in Morris Township, Aug. 3.
The program will contrast the dark, polyphonic textures of Kaija Saariaho’s Terra Memoria and Béla Bartók’s moody, capricious String Quartet No. 3 against the pure beauty of Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 12.
The four strings players — Elizabeth Stewart and Joosep Reimaa on violin, Marija Räisänen on viola and Stergios Theodoridis on cello — are eagerly anticipating their Morristown stop, which will also mark their New Jersey debut. “We’re really excited to be playing in New Jersey and also in such an important cultural space,” says Theodoridis, a native of Greece. The museum, which opened in 1913, is the state’s only Smithsonian Affiliate.
The Lot of Strings Music Festival, which is in its fifth season, is part of the museum’s Back Deck series, which stages live music of various genres on the museum’s elevated parking deck (“The most beautiful parking garage in the world,” joked violist Ralph Farris at Ethel Quartet’s appearance there, last July). Attendees are encouraged to bring their own chairs and refreshments, and arrive early to enjoy the sunset views.
The Erinys’ program will take listeners on a musical journey from darkness to light, and travel across repertoire and centuries. “We really liked, somehow, the darkness of the first half of Bartók and Saariaho,” Theodoridis says. “Of course, this Bartók isn’t all darkness, but it’s quite dark in its opening, and in the lyrical and slow parts, which we felt was a good pairing with Saariaho. You don’t always have the most pleasant feeling as the listener, and it’s not always so beautiful in a way, but this music can be fascinating.”
Stylistically, the composers couldn’t be further apart, but each wrote idiosyncratically.
“Even though they’re from such different worlds and different eras, they both have such specific compositional language,” says Stewart, who grew up in Rochester, New York. “You hear Saariaho and it doesn’t sound like anyone else, and I think Bartók is the same way — he doesn’t sound like anyone else but Bartók — and I think that connection between these two pieces is very strong.”
CHRISTOPHE ABRAMOWITZ
KAIJA SAARIAHO, 1952-2023
Saariaho, who passed away last year, was a revolutionary Finnish composer, greatly influenced by French spectral music, which emphasizes electroacoustic experimentation. Her characteristic style combines multilayered masses of polyphonic sound with live electroacoustic and synthetic elements, alongside traditional orchestral instruments.
Her creative output was vast but she only wrote two pieces for string quartet: Nymphéa in 1987 and Terra Memoria in 2007.
The latter, an 18-minute work, captures the richness and sensitivity of the string sound. Musical motifs go through distinctive transformations while some remain unchanged to reflect the transient nature of remembrance. It has become an Erinys evergreen since 2022, when the group was asked to play it at Saariaho’s 70th birthday celebration in Helsinki.
“We were really happy to get to know this piece, but we really didn’t know much about it before,” Stewart says. “Now that we’re based in the U.S., it’s really special to be able to bring this to other places where most of the audience has never heard anything by Saariaho. It’s really important for us to present it in the greatest form as we can, to kind of be the ambassadors to that kind of music to the U.S.”
Last Autum, the ensemble relocated from Helsinki to Philadelphia to enter the Curtis Institute of Music’s Nina von Maltzahn String Quartet Program. The inclusion of this work honors their Finnish roots. “It is important to us, no matter where we’re based, that we are a Finnish quartet,” Stewart says.
The group, named for the Erinyes (a.k.a. the Furies) from ancient Greek playwright Aeschylus’ “Oresteia” trilogy, was founded by Räisänen (originally from Lithuania) and Theodoridis as a university string quartet to satisfy the chamber music requirements of their music degree. Stewart was part of the quartet from the beginning, but there was a different violist. The Estonian-born Reimaa, the newest member, came onboard in 2022.
“When Marija and I originally had the idea of forming this quartet, we didn’t have much of an expectation in mind,” Theodoridis says, “Over the years, one small thing led to another.”
“We got a lot of encouragement from the teachers as well,” Räisänen adds, “and it just somehow happened very naturally for us.”
The Saariaho and Bartók selections also capture the group’s curiosity and enthusiasm for contemporary classical music.
“We all really strongly connect with 20th century works,” says Räisänen. “I feel like it matches our quartet’s energy very well. We love playing Janáček and Bartók …”
“… things that we can really go deep into …” Stewart adds.
“… and things we can really relate to,” finishes Reimaa.
The Erinys Quartet (clockwise from top, Stergios Theodoridis, Elizabeth Stewart, Joosep Reimaa and Marija Räisänen).
Certainly Bartók, an inventive Hungarian composer, speaks to this, particularly in the String Quartet No. 3, written in 1927 when he was in his mid-40s and already known for his trademark style, influenced by the melodies and rhythms of folk music from Eastern European countries.
Around 15 minutes long, it is the shortest and the most tightly constructed of his six string quartets. It is thrillingly experimental, written in a single continuous movement that includes a contemplative first part, an energetic second part, a reminiscent recapitulation and a ghostly coda. Bartók’s folkish roots are on full display through textures, colors and intense rhythms, particularly in the dancerly Allegro movement of rippling, folk-inspired melodies.
The musicians will have a chance to show off their instrumental techniques during the work’s exploration of coloristic effects. There are glissandos, pizzicatos, mutes, strumming, col legno (playing with the wood rather than with the hair of the bow) and sul ponticello (bowing as close as possible to the bridge or fingerboard.)
The program will close with the exquisite harmonies of Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 12 in E-flat major, Op.127. “Some of the late Beethoven stuff can be quite difficult, but this particular one somehow retains this really pure beauty all along,” says Theodoridis.
The 1825 work was the first of Beethoven’s six famous late quartets. At the time of the commission, he hadn’t composed a string quartet in a decade. While his earlier ensemble pieces took cues from Haydn and Mozart’s classical conventions, the later ones were highly individualistic and transcendent.
The opening Maestoso-Allegro follows a sonata form with tender lyricism and exclamatory chords. The Adagio continues with a set of variations on a rhapsodic theme, and the rollicking and humorous Scherzando sets up a buoyant and lighthearted finale.
“Often when we practice it, we keep saying, ‘This is so beautiful!’ ” Räisänen says. “So first of all, it’s so beautiful, and second, every movement is somehow very pure, very Beethoven, and very grounded.”
Each member of the quartet has a different musical viewpoint. This enhances their versatility, and gives them a creative edge.
“I feel like since we all came from four such different backgrounds — Lizzie is from the States, Joosep and I are more from Middle to Northern Europe, Stergios is from the South (of Europe) — we all brought something very different in the way that we play, in our tastes and in our general approach to music,” Räisänen says. “But of course, it’s not so different! It was very nice that it somehow matches very well together.”
“I think we take advantage of the fact that each of us brings something different so we can interpret, somehow, lots more different types of music,” Theodoridis says. “For example, maybe for an American composer, Lizzie would have some insight that the rest of us wouldn’t have. When we play Bartók, it has Balkan-like folk tunes, and for me, maybe that’s a bit more familiar as a person from Greece.
“I think Lizzie and Marija bring more intuition and fantasy to our playing, and Joosep and myself are more towards the side of being precise and fine-tuned — not to say that Joosep and I are completely uninterested in the interpretive and fantasy side. But this is something that brings very good balance, not only in rehearsals but also interpretively on the stage.”
The Erinys Quartet (from left, Elizabeth Stewart, Joosep Reimaa, Stergios Theodoridis and Marija Räisänen).
Stewart is the group’s primarius, or, first violin. Some chamber ensembles use them; those who don’t switch up who plays first violin, following a democratic model that has been popular, particularly in The United States, over the last half-century.
“For us, we feel it works best,” Theodoridis says of Stewart’s traditional role. “Because as you know, in a quartet it’s not a hierarchy. Each instrument has a very specific role. Of course, who knows in the future? But for now, we’re still trying to develop a strong identity as a quartet. We really need to stay focused and each of us to learn our role in the quartet as well as possible.”
Touring is relatively new to them, and they are enjoying the intimate and lighthearted nature of summer music festivals.
“It’s a chance to play for new audiences who’ve never heard us before, and audiences who often don’t regularly go to concerts,” Stewart says. “But also it’s a chance for us to get to know other musicians and music enthusiasts, and to make these special connections around the world. Oftentimes you get to know other musicians and get to collaborate with them, which is a really special part of playing.”
The group splits efficiently on the day-to-day. Theodoridis, who is communicative, often handles email and coordination. Reimaa deals with the technical elements and logistics of travel. Räisänen assists on scheduling, which includes setting up auditions and making sure practice rooms and rehearsal spaces are squared away. Stewart is the designated driver who gets everyone to and from events. And they all take turns on social media, to ensure that everyone’s voice is heard.
They have been the string quartet-in-residence at Curtis since Autumn 2023 and are also pursuing a diploma in chamber music at Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid, Spain, under Günter Pichler, founder and first violinist of the Alban Berg Quartett, which disbanded in 2008.
At Curtis, they work closely with faculty residents the Dover Quartet, an American string quartet formed there in 2008. “We feel really fortunate to be at Curtis and working with the Dovers,” Stewart says. “We feel really supported and taken care of.”
“It was an incredible opportunity to be able to have the chance to devote ourselves to the quartet without having to worry about basically anything else,” says Theodoridis. “We can devote 100 percent of our time into making this the best quartet it can be.”
Erinys Quartet will perform at The Morris Museum in Morris Township, Aug. 3 at 7:30 p.m. For information on this concert and other events in the museum’s Back Deck series, visit morrismuseum.org/outdoor-concerts-on-the-back-deck.
For more on the group, visit erinysquartet.com.
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