Escher String Quartet Plays for Zabar’s Shoppers
Smoked Salmon with a Side of Beethoven
Wednesday, April 06, 2011
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Shoppers at Zabar’s got an unexpected treat with their smoked fish, cheeses and baked goods Wednesday morning. The Escher String Quartet planted itself in front of the fish counter of the Upper West Side food emporium and began playing the first movement of Beethoven’s “Serioso” Quartet.
The performance coincided with Trout Week, the WQXR chamber music festival.
As customers lined up for lox and waited on whitefish, the string quartet emerged from Broadway, instruments in hand, and launched into the turbulent strains of Beethoven's piece. Shoppers reacted with a mix of astonishment and seen-it-all nonchalance.
The Escher, which takes its name from artist M.C. Escher, normally plays in more traditional venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, 92nd Street Y and Symphony Space in New York. The group will be touring China in May.
“This is definitely the most unusual performance we've ever done,” said cellist Dane Johansen. The group's other members -- violinists Adam Barnett-Hart and Wu Jie and violist Pierre Lapointe -- were seen buying a raisin bread after the performance.
Video: Amy Pearl and Jen Hsu; Text: Brian Wise
Comments [17]
Wish I were there. Just fab!
To Zabar shoppers, a Beethoven Quartet is a mere Bageltelle.
A classic (pun intended) precedent for this is Joshua Bell's performance of the Bach Chaconne from the D Minor Partita for Solo Violin. The video and amazing analysis is at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html. Enjoy!
Zabar's should consider becoming a sponsor of the station. Two great NYC institutions with overlapping customers..
"Stunned"? "shocked"? I thought New Yorkers were supposed to be so sophisticated. No doubt a great inconvenience to the salespeople, the sales volume and to the shoppers. Was this suppose to entice the Nova-Buyers to patronize Chamber Music Concerts? Bizarre idea. Did the instrumentalists get to eat anything for all their strumming?
I once spotted Itzhak Perlman at Zabar. Hope when I drop in next time, there will be classical music, live or streamed, playing at Zabar. Yes, I too miss WQXR and all the live performances in NYC.
Next week. . .sushi bar on the stage of Carnegie Hall. naahhh. . all things in their rightful place. . this doesn't work because sushi on the stage of Carnegie wouldn't work. The customers have a right to be a little freaked. . .
A Beethoven quartet live -and it was all memorized! A string quartet playing like this in public deserves adoration and awe, yet the customers seemed to have hardly noticed! It makes me angry to see this-no wonder orchestras are going out of business, when we Americans prefer garbage to true beauty in musical performance. We must save human creativity! Or we could become extinct....
Beautiful encapsulation of all the reasons why I miss Manhattan so badly.
What a delight to see the Escher Quartet. I'm sorry that I wasn't there in person. But am excited to see them play on Monday, May 23rd in Dobbs Ferry without the fish. Thank you to WQXR for doing things out of the box.
Truly Thank you so much for
wonderful music!!
I realized that music is being
Everywhere, thank you!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EYAUazLI9k
It's surprising how the New Yorkers in this clip are so jaded. Try this link to see how delighted people can be by live performance art.
The customers seem to think that this is just another service that Zabar's is offering its shoppers. They'll probably be disappointed when they're not there next week!
what a full of themselves set of customers; we'd be in ecstasy if this were to happen here.
Michael Meltzer, please note:
http://www.novasq.com/about.html
I love this. It seems (in my opinion) that in becoming a public radio station, WQXR has so much more.....creative license to do fun, push-the-envelope kinds of things.
That's inspirational! It's time for PDQ Bach to do a Lox Quintet.
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