By Jim Remis

After 47 years comprising thousands of concerts on multiple continents, dozens of recordings and performances of the greatest works in classical music, the Emerson String Quartet will say goodbye to its listeners on October 22, in New York City. They plan to disband this fall and will continue to perform and teach individually. Having spent 10 seasons at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the quartet will perform its final concert at Norfolk on Friday, Aug. 4, at 8 p.m., with a program of Mendelssohn, Beethoven and living composer Sarah Kirkland Snider.

The Emerson Quartet, named for American poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, was originally formed as a student group at the Juilliard School in 1976 and began touring professionally that same year. They have released more than 30 albums, won nine Grammy Awards, were awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize and, in 2010, were inducted into the Classical Music Hall of Fame. Besides the decade spent at Norfolk, there has also been a major Connecticut connection over the 21 years (2001-2022) that the Emerson was the resident quartet at the University of Hartford’s Hartt School. Their accomplishments rank them as one of the world’s greatest string quartets.

While the Mendelssohn and Beethoven pieces on the upcoming final Norfolk program speak for themselves, it is the Snider composition that brings the quartet full circle. As the program notes indicate, the work, entitled “Drink the Wild Ayre,” is a nod to one of the most famous quotes from the quartet’s philosophical namesake: “Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, / Drink the wild air’s salubrity.” The piece is also the final commission by the quartet. The Norfolk Chamber Music Festival has provided years of exceptional memories. The final Norfolk performance of the esteemed Emerson Quartet on Aug. 4 is certain to be another of those long-remembered evenings.

Photo by Jurgen Frank