8 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
CLASSICAL
UP CLOSE
Quartet performs concert in
total darkness, trio performs
works from new album
By KATHERINE LACAZE
FOR COAST WEEKEND
T
he Liberty Theatre in
Astoria is going dark
Friday night, but for
a good reason.
The Portland-based Pyxis
Quartet uses the absolute
lack of light as a blank can-
vas for its bold, spellbinding
performance of George Frie-
drich Hass’s “String Quartet
No. 3 „In iij. Noct.”
“The darkness is the
easel, if you will, for the
piece,” violinist Ron Bless-
inger said. “When your ears
are dilated by total darkness,
you just listen in a different
way.”
The concert by the Pyxis
Quartet – a member ensem-
ble of the 45th Parallel Uni-
verse ensemble – is one of
three performing at the Lib-
erty Friday-Sunday.
On Saturday evening, the
Hermitage Piano Trio will
perform a concert to cele-
brate and preview its debut
album, which was released
in May. The following after-
noon, Russian pianist Ilya
Kazantsev, from the Her-
mitage Piano Trio, performs
works by Beethoven, Cho-
pin, Liszt, Tchaikovsky and
Rachmaninoff in recital.
‘Total Lack of Light’
Hass’ 3rd String Quartet,
published in 2001, is subti-
tled “In iij. Noct.” in refer-
ence to the Roman Catholic
Tenebrae service conducted
during Holy Week. Dark-
ness, for both that religious
ritual and the musical per-
formance, becomes a key
theme, evoking an allusion
to the night before Jesus
Christ’s Resurrection and
complete disconnection from
God – hence the piece’s cate-
gorization as spectral music.
“There are specters in the
air, there are ghosts, there
are dialogues in sound and
color and noise,” Blessinger
said. “It’s a different kind of
music-making.”
IF YOU GO
PYXIS QUARTET
When: 7:30 p.m., Friday, June 21
Where: Liberty Theatre, 1203 Commercial St., Astoria
Details: $35. Purchase tickets at: libertyastoria.showare.com/
HERMITAGE PIANO TRIO
When: 7:30 p.m., Saturday, June 22
Where: Liberty Theatre, 1203 Commercial St., Astoria
Details: $35. Purchase tickets at: libertyastoria.showare.com/
ILYA KAZANTSEV PIANO RECITAL
When: 4 p.m., Sunday, June 23
Where: Liberty Theatre, 1203 Commercial St., Astoria
Details: $35. Purchase tickets at: libertyastoria.showare.com/