Classical News
Founding cellist of the Guarneri String Quartet passes away at 87
David Soyer, Cellist, Is Dead at 87
By DANIEL J. WAKIN

David Soyer, the founding cellist of the Guarneri String Quartet and a link to the legendary cellists Pablo Casals and Emanuel Feuermann, died on Thursday at his home in Manhattan. He was 87.

His death came a day after his birthday, his son Daniel said.

Mr. Soyer was the elder statesman when he and three other men about a dozen years younger — the violinists Arnold Steinhardt and John Dalley and the violist Michael Tree — formed a quartet at the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont in 1964.

For the next 37 years they played together, a remarkable record of longevity for a string quartet, in which tensions over music making, money and personal differences often cause breakups. The Guarneri became one of the world’s best-known quartets, setting a standard in quartetistry with seamless, warm and impassioned playing and a unanimity that did not efface individual personalities.

Mr. Soyer retired in 2001, making a handoff to his student Peter Wiley in a concert at Carnegie Hall. In the first half, Mr. Soyer played in Beethoven’s Quartet No. 13 in B flat (Op. 130), with its monumental Grosse Fuge finale. For the second half, Mr. Wiley sat next to his former teacher for Schubert’s String Quintet in C.

Mr. Soyer, weary of touring, quoted Claus Adam on Mr. Adam’s leaving the Juilliard Quartet as cellist: “I don’t want to have a heart attack at a Holiday Inn after having had dinner at a Howard Johnson’s.”

Last May Mr. Soyer reappeared for another Schubert quintet performance at the Guarneri’s last concert in New York City, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The ensemble retired as a whole, playing its final concerts this season.

The Guarneri traveled the world, playing 100 concerts a year, and its success drew the attention of writers and filmmakers. At least three books have been written about it, including one by Mr. Steinhardt. It was the subject of a well-received documentary in 1989, “High Fidelity: The Adventures of the Guarneri String Quartet.”

Mr. Soyer had a big, romantic sound. In the 1986 book “The Art of Quartet Playing: The Guarneri String Quartet in Conversation With David Blum,” Mr. Soyer described the position of a cello in a string quartet as both base and bass.

“In the role of base the cellist has to assure the foundation of the ensemble,” he said. “There must be sufficient sense of presence and substance of sound to provide a point of stability. In the role of bass the cellist must give life to the harmonic structure.”

The cello, he added, must also be the “rhythmic monitor” of a quartet by “setting the pulse, articulating points of rhythmic stress, conveying a sense of rhythmic direction.”

In a telephone interview Friday, Mr. Dalley described Mr. Soyer as the “quintessential quartet cellist.” One of his great strengths, he said, was a powerful presence. “What you want is a strong, assertive character in the bass.”

Besides his son Daniel, of Needham, Mass., Mr. Soyer, who also lived in Halifax, Vt., is survived by his wife, Janet, a retired harpist; another son, Jeffrey, of Fairlee, Vt.; a sister, Dolores Soyer, of New York; and two granddaughters.

David Soyer was born on Feb. 24, 1923, in Philadelphia to nonmusical parents and took up the cello at the relatively late age of 11. His first teacher was Emmet Sargeant, a member of the Philadelphia Orchestra; he went on to study briefly with Joseph Emonts, a member of the New York Philharmonic. His major teacher was Diran Alexanian, followed by lessons with Feuermann and Casals.

In the Blum book, Mr. Soyer recalled playing the euphonium in a Navy band in Washington that included Bernard Greenhouse, another cellist in a famed chamber ensemble, the Beaux Arts Trio. Mr. Soyer made his debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1942, under Eugene Ormandy, performing “Schelomo” by Bloch.

In 1961 Rudolf Serkin invited him to the remarkable chamber music gathering in Vermont that he helped found at Marlboro College. Mr. Soyer had known Mr. Dalley from freelancing in New York. Mr. Dalley, Mr. Steinhardt and Mr. Tree knew one another from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. All four played chamber music with Serkin.

Mr. Soyer returned to the festival to perform chamber music nearly every summer for the last 30 years, said Frank Salomon, the music manager and Marlboro’s co-administrator.

He was also a teacher, giving lessons until two weeks ago at his apartment, said his son Daniel. He was on the faculties of Curtis, the Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music.

Mr. Soyer would often recall the tough, almost abusive styles of some of his teachers, and joke about their influence. “My students cried a lot, but didn’t learn,” he once said. “They just cried. So I lightened up, and we were all happier.”


This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: March 3, 2010
An obituary on Saturday about David Soyer, the founding cellist of the Guarneri String Quartet, misstated the given name of the pianist who helped found the chamber music festival at Marlboro College in Vermont, at which Mr. Soyer performed regularly. He was Rudolf Serkin, not Rudolph.
 
5 year old conducts Stravinsky

Yes, its a YouTube video, and yes, his dad is a conductor. Totally worth it

 

 

 
 
The Opera Orchestra of New York Appoints Alberto Veronesi as Music Director Beginning with the 2011-12 Season
The Opera Orchestra of New York Appoints Alberto Veronesi as
Music Director Beginning with the 2011-12 Season

Eve Queler to Become Conductor Laureate

Mr. Verenosi To Serve as Music Director Designate in 2010-11

New York, January 26, 2010 - Norman Raben, Chairman and Eve Queler,
Music Director of The Opera Orchestra of New York today announced that
Italian conductor Alberto Veronesi has been appointed Music Director
effective in the 2011-12 season.  Mr. Veronesi will succeed The Opera
Orchestra of New York founder Eve Queler, who will become Conductor
Laureate once Mr. Veronesi's initial 5-year tenure begins.  During the
Opera Orchestra's 2010-11 40th-anniversary season, Mr. Veronesi will
serve as Music Director Designate and conduct an opera-in-concert
performance.  He will also work with the Board of Directors, Ms. Queler
and the administrative staff to program and cast future seasons. The
complete 2010-11 season, which will include two opera-in-concert
performances, a recital and additional events, will be announced at a
later date.

Born in Milan, Alberto Veronesi is Music Director of the Puccini
Festival at Torre del Lago, Artistic Director of the Filarmonica del
Teatro Comunale di Bologna, and Music Director of the Orchestra
Sinfonica Siciliana, positions which he will continue to hold during
his tenure as Music Director of the Opera Orchestra.

The Opera Orchestra of New York was established in 1971 by Eve Queler
to present rare and unusual repertory in a concert setting, emphasizing
the operatic voice over visual production. Performances feature
internationally acclaimed established artists as well as exceptional
young singers in an effort to develop an appreciation of opera among
diverse audiences while cultivating a new generation of supporters.

"We are pleased to welcome Alberto Veronesi to The Opera Orchestra of
New York family," said Mr. Raben. "During our 2009-10 'bridge' season
we have been working to regain our financial footing and develop a
strategic plan to aggressively and optimistically continue the Opera
Orchestra's longstanding tradition of exceptional opera-in-concert
performances. Mr. Veronesi's background and experience in development,
his artistic ability and vision, and his musical knowledge of the
lesser known works of the operatic repertoire make him the ideal music
director for the company."

"I am honored to accept the position of Music Director and begin this
next chapter in my life with The Opera Orchestra of New York," said Mr.
Veronesi. "I look forward to continuing Eve Queler's extraordinary
efforts in repertory renewal, presenting unique operas performed by
world-class and young singers. Ms. Queler has built an outstanding
company and I will do my best to follow in her footsteps."

"I am proud of the accomplishments of The Opera Orchestra of New York
over the past 40 years and I was thrilled to find a conductor who
shares my philosophy and will carry on the legacy of The Opera
Orchestra of New York," commented Eve Queler. "I offer him my support
and best wishes as he embarks upon this new phase in our organization."

Alberto Veronesi
          Italian conductor Alberto Veronesi has done extensive
research on the operatic repertoire of the late 19th to early 20th
Century by composers such as Pietro Mascagni, Ruggiero Leoncavallo and
Giacomo Puccini, among others, and has programmed and recorded as a
Deutsche Grammophon artist these lesser known works in an effort to
give this underexposed repertoire a wider audience with the hopes of
establishing new masterworks. His recent critically acclaimed
performances of Mascagni's L'amico Fritz starring Angela Gheorghiu and
Roberto Alagna at Deutsche Oper Berlin were recorded live and have
since been released as his third album in an ongoing Verismo project
with Deutsche Grammophon comprised of works from the post-Romantic
Italian operatic repertoire.  The series began in 2006 with the
critically acclaimed complete recording of Puccini's early opera Edgar
with Placido Domingo in the title role. The second recording, Puccini
Rediscovered released in September 2009, is an album of original
editions and alternative versions of famous Puccini arias and ensembles
as well as little-known orchestral compositions sung by Placmdo Domingo
and soprano Violeta Urmana with the Vienna Philharmonic. The next
recording in the series is La Nuit de mai, an album of Leoncavallo
songs and arias performed by Mr. Domingo, pianist Lang Lang and the
Orchestra of Teatro Comunale di Bologna to be released in April 2010.

As a guest conductor, Mr. Veronesi led the Orchestra Guido Cantelli and
I Madrigalisti Ambrosiani in Salieri's Falstaff at the Brooklyn Academy
of Music, Giordano's Andrea Chinier at the Tel Aviv Opera Theatre, and
Puccini's Madama Butterfly in Athens and at the NHK in Tokyo. He has
also conducted Leoncavallo's I Medici at Maggio Musicale Fiorentino,
Puccini's Tosca at Deutsche Oper Berlin, and Giordano's Fedora at La
Monnaie Bruxelles.

Born in Milan, Mr. Veronesi studied at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory,
graduating with honors in piano, composition and orchestral conducting.
As a student he founded the Guido Cantelli Orchestra, which has since
remained in residence at the Conservatory. He directed the orchestra
until 2000, including performances at the Salzburg Easter Festival (at
the invitation of Claudio Abbado), Teatro alla Scala and Maggio
Musicale.

In 1999, Mr. Veronesi was appointed Music Director of the Puccini
Festival at Torre del Lago, where he has not only since conducted all
of Puccini's operas but was also actively involved in the construction
of a new opera house. In 2003, his production of La Bohhme at the
Festival won the Premio Abbiati, awarded by the Italian Music Critics
Association. His performances at the Festival in 2009 included a new
production of Manon Lescaut and a gala concert with soprano Angela
Gheorghiu.

In 2001 Mr. Veronesi was named Artistic and Music Director of the
Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana in Palermo, where he is performing
complete cycles of symphonies by Beethoven, Bruckner, Mahler and
Shostakovich, as well as giving prominence to 20th-century Italian
symphonic music and continuing to program contemporary works. He was
also recently named Artistic Director of the Filarmonica del Teatro
Comunale di Bologna.  Mr. Veronesi lives in Palermo with his wife and
young daughter.

The Opera Orchestra of New York

The Opera Orchestra of New York was established by Eve Queler in 1971
to give new life to rarely-heard operas and provide the public with an
opportunity to hear these operatic rarities in major concert
performances. Among its numerous American premieres are Puccini's Edgar
with Carlo Bergonzi and Renata Scotto; Boito's Nerone with James Morris
and Pablo Elvira; and Smetana's Libuse with Gabriela Benackova and Paul
Plishka. The Company also performed the New York premiere of
Tchaikovsky's The Maid of Orleans, with Dolora Zajick and Jorma
Hynninen, which was also the American premiere of the Russian language
version.  The ensemble has also presented works long neglected in New
York, such as Wagner's Rienzi, Verdi's I Lombardi, Bizet's Les pjcheurs
de perles, and Catalani's La Wally. These pioneering efforts have led
national opera companies such as the Metropolitan, Chicago Lyric and
Houston Grand Opera to add to their permanent repertoires works that
received their first major modern hearing by The Opera Orchestra of New
York including I lombardi, Donizetti's La Favorita, Zandonai's
Francesca da Rimini, Dvorak's Rusalka and Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina.

Opera Orchestra takes an active role in identifying young operatic
talent and fostering its training. Since 1978 Opera Orchestra's Young
Artists Program has identified, trained and showcased young singers,
assisting their professional development and advancing their careers as
performing artists. It is the only program in the New York metropolitan
area that provides young singers with an opportunity to rehearse and
perform with full orchestra and chorus. The program has nurtured the
talents of Renie Fleming, Aprile Millo, Vivica Genaux, Deborah Voigt,
Latonia Moore, Stephen Costello, Michael Fabiano and Eglise Gutierrez.
Other singers who have worked with Opera Orchestra very early in their
careers include Josi Carreras, Barbara Hendricks, Dwayne Croft, Samuel
Ramey and James Morris. Singers who made their American or New York
debuts with Opera Orchestra include Gabriela Benackova, Stephanie
Blythe, Olga Borodina, Ghena Dimitrova, Jane Eaglen, Carlo Guelfi,
Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Vesselina Kasarova, Paul Plishka, Rosalind
Plowright and Krassimira Stoyanova and Dolora Zajick.

Eve Queler

Founder and creator of The Opera Orchestra of New York, Eve Queler is a
pioneer, establishing herself as one of the first prominent female
conductors of an orchestra.  She is internationally renowned for her
ground-breaking work with the Opera Orchestra and as a guest conductor
of symphonic and opera repertoire at venues that span the international
musical world. She has conducted many rarely performed operas, bringing
them to the attention of the American public and introducing them to
the standard repertoire. Standing out among her many successes are
Wagner's Rienzi, Berlioz's Benvenuto Cellini, Smetana's Dalibor, and
Strauss' Die Liebe der Danae. She celebrated her 100th Carnegie Hall
performance as Music Director of The Opera Orchestra of New York during
the 2007-2008 season.

Ms. Queler has guest conducted at opera companies including the Kirov
Opera in St. Petersburg, Russia, Hamburg Oper, Frankfurt Oper, Oper
Bonn, Australian Opera in Sydney and Nice Opera. She guest conducted
Anna Bolena with the San Diego Opera; La Bohhme with the Utah Opera; I
puritani in Royal Festival Hall, London; Lakmi in Caracas; Tales of
Hoffmann in South Africa and Quebec City; and she led Rossini's
Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra at Buenos Aires' legendary Teatro
Colsn. Her opera gala concerts have included performances at the Salle
Pleyel, Paris, and with the Honolulu Symphony, the Montreal Symphony,
the National Symphony and the Hong Kong Philharmonic. She has conducted
numerous symphony orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra,
Cleveland Orchestra, Rome Opera, and Montreal Symphony. Recently she
conducted the Orchestra Sinfonia Siciliana in Palermo, Italy, in
Shostakovich's Symphony No. 1 and Poulenc's Piano Concerto.

Ms. Queler has been named a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des
Lettres (one of the highest awards presented by the French government)
for her commitment to French operas. She has also received the Sanford
Medal, Yale University's highest musical honor.
 
Boston-area January concerts
BOSTON BAROQUE

The veteran period instrument band presents a comic double-bill devoted to Mozart’s “Bastien und Bastienne’’ and Cimarosa’s “Il Maestro di Cappella.’’ With vocal soloists Kristen Watson, Lawrence Jones, and David Kravitz. Dec. 31 at 8 p.m. and Jan. 1 at 3 p.m., $25-$69, Sanders Theatre. 617-484-9200 or www.bostonbaroque.org

GARDNER MUSEUM In conjunction with Taro Shinoda’s exhibition “Lunar Reflections,’’ the Gardner offers a New Year’s Eve performance of Schoenberg’s landmark “Pierrot Lunaire.’’ Performers include Paula Robison, Sooyun Kim, Alexis Lanz, David Fulmer, Eric Jacobsen, and Steven Beck. 7:30 p.m., Dec. 31, $60 (covers admission to museum’s holiday event running 6-9:30 p.m.). 617-278-5156, www.gardnermuseum.org

BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Early music specialist Ton Koopman leads Haydn’s Symphony No. 98, Schubert’s “Unfinished’’ Symphony, and music by C.P.E. Bach. He will also partner with Yo-Yo Ma in Haydn’s Cello Concerto No. 1. Jan. 7, 8, 9, and 12, $29-$115, Symphony Hall. 617-266-1200, www.bso.org