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SRQ DAILY Nov 30, 2016

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"We take our goals seriously, but we don't take ourselves too seriously."

- Eugene Drucker, Emerson String Quartet
 

[Music]  Emerson String Quartet Coming to the Van Wezel
Philip Lederer, Phil.Lederer@srqme.com

As part of the Sarasota Concert Association’s 72nd season presenting the Great Performers Series, the acclaimed and nine-time Grammy Award-winning Emerson String Quartet will be coming to the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall on December 18 for a single performance featuring work from Beethoven, Hungarian composer Bela Bartok and Edvard Grieg. Named “America’s greatest quartet” by TIME magazine and inducted into the Classical Music Hall of Fame in 2010, this season also marks the 40th anniversary of the Emerson String Quartet, which rose to prominence with, among other things, its marathon performances of Bartok’s six quartets.

The show opens with Beethoven’s final string quartet, Opus 135. Written after a period of intense experimentation, this last composition melds the composer’s experimental edge with the more familiar and accessible sounds of his forebears Haydn and Mozart. “There’s still a lot here that’s unusual,” says violinist and quartet co-founder Eugene Drucker, from the “wild and rollicking” second movement to the final movement, building from a slow start to incorporate all the motifs that came before for a cathartic conclusion. “There’s the feeling in this work that everything counts,” says Drucker. “There’s not an ounce of fat on it and everything that happens motifically has consequences later on.”

Turning to the modernist school, the show continues with Bartok’s String Quartet No. 4. Written in 1928, the piece reflects Bartok at his most modernist, says Drucker, incorporating exotic sounds amidst a rigidly structured composition. The second movement, Prestissimo, con sordino, (“Which goes by in a flash—just an astonishingly hyperactive movement.”) features all instruments playing with mutes, which is then thematically linked to the fourth movement featuring pizzicato through its entirety. The first and final movements are also linked thematically, while the third stands alone, heavily influenced by Bartok’s ethnomusical studies. But don’t be intimidated by the abundance of musical theory, says Drucker: “One only needs to be open to all of these different sounds and the rhythmic energy and excitement of the quartet to experience it.” And Grieg is the perfect finisher, he says, both accessible and charismatic all the way to the “edge-of-your-seat excitement” of the final movement.

Despite decades of acclaim and whatever monikers TIME may see fit to bestow, each performance remains about pushing forward. “If we become complacent, we wouldn't be able to keep up that sharp edge of self-criticism in a constructive way—always striving for better,” says Drucker. “We take our goals seriously, but we don’t take ourselves too seriously.”

The Emerson String Quartet performs at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall on December 18. Tickets are $37–65 and available through the Sarasota Concert Association. 

Pictured: The Emerson String Quartet (Drucker on left). Photo by Lisa-Marie Mazzucco.

[Good Bite]  All About the Sauce
Aviel Kanter, aviel.kanter@srqme.com

For those of you who are avid Thai or Indian food eaters, you'll have to agree that the struggle to find the best of the best in peanut sauce is real. Ideal for slathering over everything from chicken to rice to dumplings, the nutty sauce has to contain just the right amount of spice, the perfect peanut-butter-to-soy-sauce ratio and, of course, a consistency that rides the line between too thick and too soupy. For all your saucy longings, head directly to long-time Sarasota Indian food staple Chutney's Etc. and witness the glory of their peanut sauce offering. Creamy but not gloopy, spiced but not hot, sweet but not Jiffy—it's perfect. Order the peanut chicken and a bowl of the stuff will appear in front of you, tender bits of juicy chicken bobbing up to the surface, with a side of basmati rice waiting to be drenched.  

Chutney's Etc., 1944 Hillview St., Sarasota, 941-954-4444.

[Hires]  Trustees, Staff Added to Hermitage Artist Retreat

The Hermitage Artist Retreat announced changes and additions to its roster of employees as well as its board of directors. Manasota Key resident David Green joins returning trustee Andy Maass to begin new three-year terms on the board side. Staff changes include Craig Badinger as development director, Holly Pisaturo as office manager and Jacobina Trump as facilities manager.  

Hermitage Artist Retreat

[Hires]  Jifunza Joins CAN Board

Community AIDS Network (CAN) announced the appointment of Reverend Demetrius Jifunza to its board of directors. Rev. Jifunza serves as NAACP vice president of the Sarasota branch and Sr. Pastor at Mt. Olive CME Church in Arcadia, FL. As a member of Sarasota United for Responsibility and Equity (SURE), Rev. Jifunza works with community leaders and public officials to correct inequities in the Sarasota community that affect the poor, under-served and disadvantaged, tackling such issues as school arrest, homelessness and mental health, with efforts to make educating and spreading awareness about HIV/AIDS a topic. 

Community Aids Network

[Recognition]  Nohren Named Volunteer of the Year

Icard Merrill attorney Alyssa M. Nohren has been named volunteer of the year by the Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast. Nohren was honored for her contribution of more than 100 hours of philanthropic legal support to ensure the permanent protection of Triangle Ranch, a 1,143-acre working cattle ranch in Manatee County with a diverse range of native plants and animals. Nohren practices real estate law with an emphasis on real estate transactions, manufactured and mobile home law and real estate litigation. The Conservation Foundation is a regional nonprofit organization that works to protect eco-sensitive lands, waterways and wildlife. 

Icard Merrill



[Inside the Issue]  Perfect Imperfections

This month in Perfect Imperfections, venture to Hall Architects’ Wabi Sabi House—a three-quarter-acre compound living in an unperfected, unrefined state. Everything about the home embraces the Japanese ideal of wabi-sabi, celebrating the beauty that arises from flaws occurring in the natural world. Journey along with us and observe how this notion informs the entirety of the two structures on the property—one built as a “live” space and one for “work”—showcased in the exposed framework and unfinished concrete blocks, each element creating a feeling of both grounding and impermanence.  

Read More

[TODAY]  THEATER: Piano Men , November 30 – March 31

Piano Men by Richard Hopkins and Catherine Randazzo with Caroline Kaiser and arrangements by Jim Prosser is a tribute to the virtuosity and elegance of the "piano man". The play will feature works of the 20th century's best pianists and songwriters such as Billy Joel, Elton John and Barry Manilow. 

Florida Studio Theatre, 1241 North Palm Avenue

SRQ Media Group

SRQ DAILY is produced by SRQ | The Magazine. Note: The views and opinions expressed in the Saturday Perspectives Edition and in the Letters department of SRQ DAILY are those of the author(s) and do not imply endorsement by SRQ Media. Senior Editor Jacob Ogles edits the Saturday Perspective Edition, Letters and Guest Contributor columns.In the CocoTele department, SRQ DAILY is providing excerpts from news releases as a public service. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by SRQ DAILY. The views expressed by individuals are their own and their appearance in this section does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. For rates on SRQ DAILY banner advertising and sponsored content opportunities, please contact Ashley Ryan Cannon at 941-365-7702 x211 or via email

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