The 92nd Street Y, New York (92NY), one of New York’s leading cultural venues, presents Meta4: Declarations of Love on Friday, May 2, 2025 at 7:30pm ET in Buttenwieser Hall at The Arnhold Center and streaming online. Tickets start at $40 for in-person and $25 for online streaming. Tickets are available at https://www.92ny.org/event/meta4. Online streaming is also available for 72 hours following the performance.

The extraordinary Finnish string quartet Meta4 makes a rare US appearance – and their NYC mainstage debut – with a thoughtful program examining adult love in all its nuances and complexities. The ensemble is striking in their colorful, muscular sound and in their visual impact – with the exception of the cellist they perform standing up, allowing for freedom of both movement and expression. Their program, Declarations of Love, begins with Janacek’s gorgeous manifesto on love, his second string quartet, “Intimate Letters,” inspired by the letters of adoration he exchanged with his young muse, Kamila Stösslová. British composer Sally Beamish’s Nine Fragments/String Quartet No. 4 is inspired by Robert Schumann’s A-Minor String Quartet. Beamish writes, “My quartet consists of 9 very short, fragmentary movements – each tilting a broken mirror towards a particular passage in Schumann’s work and reflecting widely differing moods; from melancholy to elation.” The concert culminates in a performance of the Schumann quartet, with its mercurial examination of love.

Program
LEOŠ JANÁČEK String Quartet No. 2, “Intimate Letters”
SALLY BEAMISH Nine Fragments — String Quartet No. 4
ROBERT SCHUMANN String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 41, No. 1

Meta4, formed in 2001, is one of the most internationally successful Finnish string quartets. In 2004 it won the first prize in the International Shostakovich Quartet Competition in Moscow and was also awarded a special prize for best Shostakovich interpretation. The quartet also won the first prize in the 2007 International Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Competition in Vienna. Later that year, the Finnish Minister of Culture awarded Meta4 the annual Finland Prize in recognition of an international breakthrough. Meta4 was selected as a BBC New Generation Artist for 2008–2010, and in 2013 the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation awarded the quartet with a special prize in recognition of its work.

Meta4 performs regularly in music capitals and concert halls around the world including Wiener Konzerthaus, Wigmore Hall and King’s Place in London, Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, Cité de la Musique in Paris and Stockholms Konserthus, and has also toured in Australia. The ensemble served as principal guest conductor of the Jyväskylä Symphony Orchestra from 2022 to 2024, as artistic director of Oulunsalo Music Festival between 2008 and 2011, and was the quartet-in-residence at the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival from 2008-2017. In recent seasons, Meta4 has impressed audiences and critics in Kaija Saariaho's chamber opera Only the Sound Remainsat the Finnish National Opera, Opéra de Paris, Teatro Real Madrid and Lincoln Center.

The quartet has released three recordings on Hänssler Classics: Haydn’s String Quartets, Op. 55, Nos. 1–3 (2009), Echo Klassik Award winner in 2010; Shostakovich’s String Quartets Nos. 3, 4, and 7 (2012), awarded 2012 Record of the Year from the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE as well as the Emma prize (the Finnish Grammy) for Classical Album of the Year; and Bartók’s String Quartets Nos. 1 and 5 (2014). The quartet has also released an album of Saariaho’s chamber works (Ondine, 2013) and an album of Sibelius’s string quartet “Voces intimae” (Berliner Meister Schallplatten, 2013). A recording of Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet and Gérard Pesson’s Nebenstückwith Reto Bieri was released on ECM Records in 2019. The quartet’s most recent albums were released by Bis Records. Meta4’s recording of octets by Mendelssohn and Enescu with the Gringolts Quartet was released in 2020, and fall 2021 saw the release of Oceano: Chamber Music by Sebastian Fagerlund.

About The 92nd Street Y, New York: The 92nd Street Y, New York (92NY) is a world-class center for the arts and innovation, a convener of ideas, and an incubator for creativity. 92NY offers extensive classes, courses and events online including live concerts, talks and master classes; fitness classes for all ages; 250+ art classes, and parenting workshops for new moms and dads. The 92nd Street Y, New York is transforming the way people share ideas and translate them into action all over the world. All of 92NY's programming is built on a foundation of Jewish values, including the capacity of civil dialogue to change minds; the potential of education and the arts to change lives; and a commitment to welcoming and serving people of all ages, races, religions, and ethnicities. For more information, visit www.92NY.org.

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• May 2

  May 2, 2025
• 1395 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY

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