KQED: Cy and David’s Picks: …20 years of Beethoven

Source: www.kqed.org/arts
By Cy Musiker
April 28, 2016

May 4 – June 26: The Cypress String Quartet set out 20 years ago to play and record all of Beethoven’s string quartets (with a few detours for some modern composers). Now that they’re done, they’re disbanding. It’s not, said cellist Jennifer Kloetzel, that they aren’t still finding fresh insights into Beethoven’s amazing cycle of quartets: “My colleagues tease me and say Beethoven is like your boyfriend, because I’m so obsessed with how he dug very deep. I can perform one of these quartets hundreds of times and always find something new in it.”

But Kloetzel said she and the other members (Cecily Ward, violin; Tom Stone, violin; Ethan Filner, viola) have other projects they want to pursue. Still they’re going out like “Thelma and Louise, full speed ahead,” with a series of free concerts in every district of San Francisco, the quartet’s home, plus ticketed concerts in Napa, Berkeley and Palo Alto. Details for this lovely parting gift are here.