Hear the daring music two 20th-century composers created despite war and oppression. Prokofiev wrote his String Quartet No. 2 during his evacuation to a remote Soviet region at the onset of Germany’s 1941 invasion of Russia. Inspired by the local music, he spiced his quartet with the folk tunes and dance rhythms of the area. Schulhoff’s Five Pieces for String Quartet from 1923 has lively rhythmic flair, pungent harmonies, and folk accents from his Czech homeland. A Jew with a love for jazz and ragtime, he perished in a German concentration camp in 1942. 

Available through May 31, 2021.