Details

What: Alexander String Quartet

When: 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday

Where: Vanderhoef Studio Theatre at the Mondavi Center

Tickets: $49 general, $24.50 students; mondaviarts.com or (530) 754-2787

The Alexander String Quartet — an ensemble that has appeared regularly at the Mondavi Center since the center opened in 2002 — embarks on a new project on Sunday: a series focusing on the chamber music of the Czech composer Antonín Dvořák.

Sunday’s concert will feature two works written when  Dvořák (born in 1841) was in his late 30s, and finally becoming famous. In 1874 and 1876, Dvořák’s compositions won prizes in competitions that had Johannes Brahms —a well-established and respected figure in music by that time — on the jury that determined the awards.

Brahms not only helped Dvořák win these competitions by making a case of the value of his music as a juror, he went a step further, and recommended Dvořák’s music to his publisher — Simrock, based in Berlin, which began issuing some of Dvořák’s scores.

This gradually opened the way for Dvořák’s music, which up to that time had been heard mostly in Prague, to become better known in Germany, and internationally.

So when Dvořák wrote his String Quartet in D Minor, Op. 34, in December 1877, the appreciative Dvořák asked Brahms for permission to dedicate the new quartet to him. Brahms consented.

Dvořák began work on the String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 51, in late 1878, and finished the piece in early 1879. By this time, Dvořák had become “a name” in German music, and the piece was premiered in the Berlin home of the famous violinist Joseph Joachim, who had become an advocate of  Dvořák’s music.

But even as he moved into the prestigious upper echelons of Germany’s musical society, Dvořák’s music retained a strong and identifiable Czech flavor — the second movement of the E-flat Major Quartet is billed as a dumka, a type of Slavonic folk-ballad that draws on melancholy themes at least part of the time.

(And don’t forget that Dvořák was the son of a village butcher who helped around his father’s shop as a child, and drew on traditional Czech dances and melodies throughout his career.)

The Alexander String Quartet will perform both the String Quartet in D Minor, Op. 34, and the String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 51, on Sunday at 2 and 7 p.m. in the Vanderhoef Studio Theatre at the Mondavi Center. The 2 p.m. performance will include remarks by musicologist and composer Robert Greenberg, who is regularly featured as part of the Alexander String Quartet’s Sunday afternoon performances at Mondavi. The 7 p.m. performance will feature a post-concert question-and-answer session with the members of the quartet.

Greenberg told The Enterprise that he considers himself “a real Dvořák fan.”

“Dvořák tends to be underestimated by many members of the listening public as a composer,” he said. “He’s admired as a tunesmith, and as a ‘Czech composer,’ whatever that’s supposed to be. But the reality is that his chamber music is among the best of the 19th century.

“He’s as good as Brahms. And Dvořák wrote more varied music — symphonies, chamber works, operas, sacred music — than anyone since Mozart.”

It could also be added that while the prolific Mozart composed the vast quantities of music for which he is remembered as a young man — he was only 35 when he died in 1791 — Dvořák composed most of the music for which he is now remembered after his 36th birthday, and was still quite active until shortly before his death in 1904, when he was in his early 60s.

Sunday’s 2 p.m. performance is technically sold out, but typically there are a few turned-back tickets that become available at the box office during the 30 minutes preceding the concert. There are also a limited number of tickets available for the 7 p.m. performance. Tickets are $49 general, $24.50 for students.

The Alexander String Quartet’s new Dvořák series — which also will include concerts at Mondavi in January and March 2012 — comes on the heels of a three-year cycle of performances of the complete Beethoven string quartets, which concluded last June. Prior to the Beethoven series, the Alexander String Quartet, and commentator Greenberg, did series focusing on the string quartets and other chamber works of Brahms, Mozart and Dmitri Shostakovich.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Alexander String Quartet, which was formed in New York in 1981. The group eventually moved its base of operations to San Francisco, and has long served as quartet-in-residence at San Francisco State University.

— Reach Jeff Hudson at [email protected] or (530) 747-8055.

Alexander String QuartetW

The Alexander String Quartet features, from left, Zakarias Grafilo, violin; Sandy Wilson, cello; Paul Yarbrough, viola; and Frederick Lifsitz, violin. Rory Earnshaw/Courtesy photo

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