Strings

Stringed instruments lie at the heart of much of what we know and love today as classical music. This week on Arizona Encore, we’ll hear a rich sampling of the undeniable versatility, beauty, and expressiveness of stringed instruments in the hands of capable musicians.

We’ll begin with an often-overlooked member of the string family: the harp. Heidi Hernandez is a rare example of a hybrid composer and harp virtuoso, and her piece Prism, composed between 2016 and 2020, consists of three movements, respectively titled Wind, Rain, and Ocean. Hernandez’s composition is a refreshing glimpse of the harp, usually featured in orchestral settings, as a solo instrument.

Next in this week’s program is Florence Price’s Five Negro Folksongs in Counterpoint, performed by the dynamic Catalyst String Quartet. An accomplished composer and educator in her own time, Price’s music was tragically forgotten after her death in 1953. In 2009, though, an unearthing of her manuscripts brought renewed attention to this remarkable musician who broke barriers of gender and race in her career. 

The program concludes with Sergei Prokofiev’s Cello Sonata in C Major, Op. 119. Like many of his most accomplished Soviet contemporaries, Prokofiev’s compositional talents were heavily scrutinized and regulated by the Soviet government, and when he composed this sonata in 1949, he was facing the possibility of his music being indefinitely banned from public performance due to alleged anti-communist sentiment. Despite these uncertain circumstances–or, perhaps, because of them–Prokofiev managed to craft a moving and enduring masterpiece showcasing the expressive range of the cello in an intimate setting.