St. Lawrence String Quartet
Inon Barnatan, Piano

Haydn’s quartet is an edgy exploration of asymmetrical phrases, dissonant flashes, and abrupt dynamic shifts, while Beethoven’s final quartet has abundant good humor—particularly a slapstick episode in the Scherzo where the first violin takes flight as other players repeat a churning, comic figure 48 times. Shostakovich’s quintet is also open-hearted with powerful expression and technical brilliance going hand-in-hand. Its piano part is stunning, particularly the giddy whirlwind Scherzo that will showcase the mastery of Inon Barnatan, “one of the most admired pianists of his generation” (The New York Times).

Chiaroscuro Quartet
Kristian Bezuidenhout, Fortepiano

Experience music as the composers would have heard it when the preeminent period-performance string quartet joins the leading fortepianist of our day for a program that features an arrangement of a Mozart concerto and a Schubert masterpiece. The Chiaroscuro Quartet has enjoyed a meteoric rise to fame based on the “radiant refinement of their sound and their suave sensitivity of phrasing” (BBC Music), while Kristian Bezuidenhout—“a musician who could probably conjure sweet music from a piece of dry toast” (The Times, London)—displays his trademark virtuosity and taste.

The Knights

A Vivaldi sinfonia, a chamber symphony by Thomas Adès, premieres of works co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall, and daring new takes on music from Middle East, Balkan, and klezmer sources—it’s just the kind of program audiences have grown to expect and love from The Knights, an ensemble acclaimed for its “voracious musical appetite” (Chicago Classical Review). This “adventurous orchestral collective” (The Baltimore Sun) is joined by Syrian clarinetist Kinan Azmeh for an exotic musical journey.