Most string quartets perform works by famed historical composers like Beethoven, Debussy, Haydn, Schubert or Shostakovich, often adding a lesser-known contemporary selection on programs to spice things up and provide a taste of the now.
A small number focus only on modern and contemporary repertoire. But few if any others do what the Mexico City-based Cuarteto Latinoamericano has done so successfully: specialize exclusively in 20th- and 21st-century works by Latin American composers.
As part of its 40th anniversary season, the quartet is making a Chicago appearance on Oct. 15 as part of Hispanic Heritage Month, which ends that day. The event, presented in partnership with the International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago, marks the opening of the Music Institute of Chicago’s 2022-23 season at Nichols Concert Hall in Evanston.
“This will be the second time we play a live concert in Chicago,” said Saúl Bitrán, the Cuarteto’s first violinist, “which is pretty amazing, because it is such a musical city with a big Mexican presence. But for some reason, we have had a very sparse presence there, so we are very excited to come back.”
The program includes works by Argentinian musical luminary Alberto Ginastera and Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz, as well as two arrangements of pieces by famed tango master Carlos Gardel. Rounding out the concert is the String Quartet No. 17 (1957), the final work in the form by legendary Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos and Essay No. 1 for Quartet by Francisco Mignone.
“Villa-Lobos went through a lot of periods,” Bitrán said, “which you can see through his 17 quartets, but by No. 17, he had come back to a very serene, almost neo-classical style. There is a subtlety to this very well-built quartet with a gorgeous slow movement. We love this quartet, because it feels very mature and serene.”
The Cuarteto has recorded the complete set of the composer’s quartets, a 10-year project that concluded in 2003, and Bitrán calls that recording and the accompanying performances the group’s most important accomplishment to date. “It taught us so much,” he said. “It taught us how to play together and it taught us what it is to be a Latin American composer.”
Villa-Lobos (1887-1959) is the latest focus of the Music Institute’s two-year-old “One Composer, One Community” initiative, which annually highlights an under-appreciated composer through concerts, conversations and educational programs.
“It may be a composer of color,” said Mark George, the Music Institute’s president and CEO. “Sometimes it would be a woman composer. There are a lot of people whose music, unfortunately, has not been heard.”
When the Cuarteto was formed in Mexico, the country had no such full-time, touring foursome. The group began by following the traditional model, performing works by the standard, European composers, and the members were pleased with how things were going.
“But in parallel,” Bitrán said, “and it’s very natural, we were interested in seeing what had been written for the quartet in Latin America, which I must confess, we knew nothing about. We knew that Villa-Lobos, Ginastera and some other people had written quartets, but we didn’t know the music.”
They found scores at local libraries and conservatories, and the group began programming some of the works alongside the European composers. When they started touring, music critics were particularly excited about the Latin American selections, which were almost never heard.
“It became clear to us pretty soon,” Bitrán said, “that that [repertory] should be the main focus of our career, not only as a market niche, but also because we really believed in that music, and we keep pushing it, because we think that some of it is really, really world-class.”
In addition to modern masterworks, the group has also commissioned more than 100 compositions and recorded many of them. “This became known throughout Latin America,” he said, “that we were playing new pieces for string quartet, and that stimulated the creation of hundreds of new pieces for quartet.”
The personnel of the Cuarteto has stayed the same except for Bitrán, who joined in 1986 after the group’s original first violinist moved back to Uruguay. He and two other members of the quartet are brothers, the children of amateur musicians. “We grew up playing chamber music at home,” he said, “so it became natural for us.”
The founding musicians knew each other since they were students, and they were playing in two different orchestras in the early ’80s. At first, the quartet members performed together part time and kept their main jobs.
“And then they decided to take this big, scary leap of abandoning the orchestras and dedicating all their time to the quartet,” Bitrán said.
The gamble paid off. The Cuarteto has toured extensively throughout Europe, North America and Asia, and it won Latin Grammys in 2012 and 2016. In addition, it has three times received the Chamber Music America/ASCAP award for adventurous programming.
The group had hoped that through its efforts across 40 years, more of the great Latin American quartets that it champions would be performed by fellow ensembles around the world, but this has not come to pass.
“It is a big disappointment,” Bitrán said. “Maybe now, with the increased emphasis on diversity, this is our opportunity to push this repertoire. We keep trying.”
