FREE Courtroom Concert: Artaria String Quartet

Program: CROSSING PATHS WITH THE SCHUMANNS
This program invites listeners to hear these works not as isolated masterpieces, but as conversations across time—between composers bound by admiration, grief, mentorship, and shared artistic purpose. Together, these quartets illuminate the emotional and intellectual landscape of Romanticism at its most intimate.

Hosted by composer Abbie Betinis, our popular Courtroom Concerts take place at noon most Thursdays in the Landmark Center in downtown Saint Paul. This series features accomplished musicians and composers from the Twin Cities and surrounding area, as well as occasional musical newcomers to the area. These one-hour concerts are free and open to the public.

Program Notes:

CROSSING PATHS WITH THE SCHUMANN’S: The nineteenth century was an era of intertwined artistic lives. Composers did not work in isolation but in close dialogue—with one another’s music, ideas, and personal circumstances. The Schumann’s stood at the center of this vibrant network, connected to composers who shaped and were shaped by their artistic ideals. This concert series traces those intersections: emotional, stylistic, and historical crossings that illuminate the evolution of the string quartet during the Romantic era.

Franz Schubert (1797–1828)
String Quartet in D minor, D.810, “Death and the Maiden” (1824)
Schubert’s Death and the Maiden quartet stands as one of the most profound statements in the chamber music repertoire. Written in March 1824, during a period of grave illness and emotional despair, the work confronts mortality with unflinching intensity. Though Schubert and Robert Schumann never met, Schumann later became one of Schubert’s greatest champions, recognizing him as a symphonic thinker whose emotional reach extended far beyond the Classical tradition.

The quartet takes its name from the second movement, a set of variations on Schubert’s 1817 song Der Tod und das Mädchen, in which Death gently reassures a terrified young woman. Here, the theme becomes the emotional core of the work—somber, restrained, and inexorable. The outer movements are driven by agitation and urgency: the opening Allegro erupts with stark, unison statements, while the final Presto channels a relentless, almost demonic energy, often interpreted as a danse macabre.

For the Romantic generation that followed—including the Schumann’s—this quartet represented a new expressive horizon. Its fusion of lyricism, psychological depth, and structural rigor deeply influenced the way chamber music could embody inner life.

About the Artists:

“Minnesota’s foremost teaching and performing string quartet”, the Artaria String Quartet is an “exceptional ensemble with impressive confidence in its interpretations”. Winners of the prestigious 2004 McKnight Fellowship for Performing Musicians, Artaria was featured on Twin Cities Public Television as part of the Minnesota Originals series and was named 2013-14 Minnesota Public Radio Artists-in-Residence.

Artaria was formed in Boston and mentored by members of the venerable Kolisch and Juilliard Quartets. Their “refined and thoughtful playing” brought them to the attention of Alexander Schneider, violinist of the legendary Budapest Quartet, who invited them to make their New York debut on his own New School Concert Series. Since then, they have performed at major venues throughout the United States and Europe, on national television and public radio, and at top international music festivals.

In 1992, Artaria competed at the 4th Banff International String Quartet Competition in Banff, Canada. Earning numerous awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music America, and the Minnesota State Arts Board for excellence in performance and educational outreach, Artaria are founders of the highly regarded Artaria Chamber Music School in Saint Paul, MN, Stringwood Summer Chamber Music Festival, in Lanesboro, MN, and the Saint Paul String Quartet Competition, an international showcase for top-tier collegiate and pre-college string quartets hosted each April in Sundin Music Hall.

This season, they are celebrating their 40th year of chamber music performing and educating.