TASP Story
How I Learned to Love the Trout QuintetBarry Lieberman
As most studies show, Schubert's Trout Quintet is consistently rated as the number one requested chamber music work of all time. The fact that it is one of the very few chamber music pieces that includes the double bass is essentially inconsequential to its popularity. Together with Schubert's Octet and the Beethoven Septet, these three works comprise the most often-heard chamber works that include the double bass. True, there are those rarities, such as the Prokofiev Quintet, Spohr Octet and Nonet, Glinka Sextet, Histoire du Soldat, Rossini Sonatas, Hindemtih Octet, and Mendelssohn Sextet, which are performed, generally at the request of the performing bassist.
Primarily in frustration at the miniscule amount of quality chamber works written for us, I decided to do the unthinkable, which is to write bass parts for just about any string quartet, quintet or sextet I wished. Actually to say it was this simple would be misleading. This "Project" was actually the product of years of exploring the chamber music repertoire for works that would be appropriate for my ultimate goal, the American String Project. To tell the story, I must start at the beginning.
Ever since my first real chamber music experience in the late seventies, I felt as though we double bassists have been shortchanged by the world's greatest composers. Needless to say, my first chamber music experience was with the Trout. As it was with the great pianist Emmanuel Ax and other members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, I cannot complain as to the excellence of the performance. Yet, the lack of other works of substance loomed.
In 1980, I entered my first year of chamber music festivals with Chamber Music Northwest, a festival at which Edgar Meyer and I both serve as bassists. Over the course of time between 1980 and the present, I think I have performed all of the above-mentioned works, as well as even more esoteric pieces. Other festivals in which I performe primarily repeated those few works most popular with audiences, and increased the frustration of wanting to play Mozart, Brahms, Shostakovich, and all of the other great composers who did not include the double bass in the chamber music output.
By the time that my wife, Maria Larionoff (Acting Concertmaster, Seattle Symphony) and I moved to Seattle in 1990, we had collected a large number of friends who were some of the best string players in the world, and over the course of the next ten years that number would be increased dramatically. This was to be one of the critical factors in what would later allow us to put together the orchestra that would become "The American String Project".
Early in my tenure at the University of Washington, I created a series known as Barry Lieberman and Friends. The first several years of this series used both professionals and students for performances of the complete Brandenburg Concerti, Mendelssohn String Symphonies, Mozart Divertimenti, and many other works. In addition, the series began to incorporate many guest appearances by famous double bassists, both in recital and master classes. Guests have included Gary Karr, Edgar Meyer, Roma Vayspapir, Rustem Gabdullin (principal, Russian National Orchestra,) Jeff Turner (principal, Pittsburgh Symphony,) Maximillian Dimoff (principal, Cleveland Orchestra,) Thomas Martin (former principal bass, London Symphony,) Joel Quarrington (principal, Toronto Symphony,) Hal Robinson (principal, Philadelphia Orchestra,) Chris Brown (principal, St Paul Chamber Orchestra,) and my own teacher Robert Gladstone (principal, Detroit Symphony.) As a result of these visits, the University of Washington has the largest recorded collection of live double bass recitals in the world, available for listening at the School of Music library.
For several years, Maria and I were privileged to perform with Dimitri Sitkovetsky and his New European Strings, both in Seattle and on tours to Europe; and the idea of performing chamber works for full string orchestra became a reality. We performed Sitkovetsky's arrangements of Shostakovich, Bach, Schubert and Beethoven. These arrangements primarily amounted to adding a bass part to the works as written. While excellent in concept, I felt that there were places in these arrangements where the bass could have been used even more extensively, or on occasion, not used.
The idea was planted, and I attempted many forays with adding the bass to chamber works and performed them on the BL & F series. At the same time, I was trying to figure out a way to create a "super string orchestra", made up of our friends, and doing almost exclusively arrangements of great chamber music. My arrangements were based on my long orchestral experience, adding parts to works as the composer might have.
A fortunate trip to the park with our two golden retrievers Norie and Randolph was to be the beginning of a new endeavor. Having run into a good friend, retired surgeon and serious music lover, Dr. Alan Morgan, we had occasion to spend over two hours at the park, discussing my "dream orchestra" something that appeared to fascinate my listener. Some hours later that day, I received a complete and detailed budget for what was to become two years later, a reality.
Gathering all of our non-musician friends, we were able to form a non-profit organization and board of directors, and began to mount our first concerts in May 2002. With a budget of about $100,000, we were able to produce three performances in Seattle's new concert hall, Benaroya Hall.
The recital hall was a perfect venue, seating about 600. I soon found myself with the enviable task of inviting our friends to Seattle to play, and having to determine the repertoire to be performed.
Amongst those who came to perform was Nathaniel Rosen, cello, Frank Almond (Concertmaster, Milwaukee and Rotterdam), Jorja Fleezanis (Concertmaster, Minnesota Orchestra), Maria Bachmann and Diane Pascal (Lark Quartet), members of Orpheus, and other well-known concertmasters, soloists and professors.
Works performed included Haydn's d minor quartet Opus 76, Shostakovich's Quartet #3, Dvorak's American Quartet, Brahm's Sextet #2 and the Ravel quartet, amongst others.
In all, there were nine pieces performed, and a different violinist led each.
As one of our critics noted, "the concerts were astonishing!", and indeed, the orchestra was more powerful and compelling to listen to than any of us had imagined.
Our second season took place in March 2003, and works performed included the Prokofiev quartet #2, Schoenberg's Transfigured Night. Mozart Dissonance' quartet, and the Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings. New members who joined our conductor less ensemble were Toby Appel (Professor of Viola, Juilliard School of Music,) and Lloyd Smith (Associate Principal Cello, Philadelphia Orchestra).
2004 was our third season and we performed arranged quartets by Schubert, Shostakovich amongst others and we welcomed a new member to the violin section, Nancy Bean, the Assistant Concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra. June 2005 brought us to our fourth season and we were met again with superlative reviews, including our recordings being reviewed by Gramophone magazine, the world standard in reviews of classical music. All of the reviews from 2002 forward are available on our Reviews Page.
Our 2006 concert series brought more critical praise:
"its hard to do less than marvel at 15 performers playing with such precision that at times one has to look to see if more than one person is playing. Even more so when those 15 come together from around the country for only a few days of rehearsal before these performances."
"The first movement of Shostakovich's Quartet No 12, led by Larionoff, provided the emotional high point of the evening, the orchestra creating a raw cry of pain. The players portrayed equally strongly the decisive, angry, almost defiant feel to the second and last movement." Seattle Post-Intelligencer, June 2006
"Predictably a remarkable concert"
"Flamboyant and full of Spanish flavor, the three exuberant pieces had all the violinists playing the daredevil, technically challenging solo part in unison, a feat indeed."
The searching, searing Shostakovich gained extra gravity with the addition of the double bass. The playing was inspired!" Seattle Times, June 2006
Truly a long journey from that first Trout Quintet, and hopefully one that is far from over. Our 2007 season will introduce one of my most favorite composers, Bela Bartok. His six string quartets are famously difficult for the most experienced players and we at the Project welcome the challenge! Truly a long journey from that first Trout Quintet, and hopefully one that is far from over.