This poetically lyrical program, infused with unforced virtuosity and memorable melodies, is the perfect way to spend a summer evening. The witty sophistication of Germaine Tailleferre, the only woman in the early 20th century group of French composers known as Les Six, sets up a fascinating contrast with a passionately dramatic quintet rooted in Armenian

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Beethoven’s “Kreutzer” Sonata, one of his most brilliant and popular works, has an extraordinarily intimate emotional intensity, which serves as a primary plot point of Tolstoy’s controversial novella of the same name, by which the narrator is driven to murderous obsession. Janáček’s string quartet, premiered 100 years ago, reflects on the psychological drama and obsessive

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Step right up for an utterly delightful mini musical summer vacation! First stop, a charming piece for piano four-hands evoking nature-related sounds and scenes of the English countryside, paired with a poetic, atmospheric quintet by a self-described “brazen Romantic.” Enjoy a taste of the jazzy flavors of Gershwin before jet-setting off to Bohemia for Dvořák’s

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At the age of 17 Samuel Coleridge-Taylor became fascinated by the music of Dvořák, with its American and African-American influences. At 19 he heard Brahms’s landmark Clarinet Quintet, and immediately set to work on his own, which is filled with lush, youthful extravagance, and—like much of his music—incorporates traditions from both his African and English

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