The 40th season of the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society features masterpieces from the early 17th to the early 21st century, played on some of the world’s most highly prized instruments in this six-concert series. Featured ensembles are as follows: The Smithsonian Chamber Players, Smithsonian Consort of Viols, and the Esterházy Machine. This concert series is also offered on Sunday dates.
Kenneth Slowik, artistic director and recipient of the Smithsonian Distinguished Scholar Award, curates a series of pre-concert lectures (one hour prior to each program), shedding light on the glorious music and the life and times of the featured composers.
To learn more about the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society, click here.
CONCERT PROGRAM
The theme is again late-19th-century Viennese, with two of the greatest chamber works of Brahms: the warmly gemütlich A major piano-and-violin sonata, and the haunting, autumnally beautiful clarinet quintet, one of the pieces Brahms wrote after he was seduced to end his self-imposed compositional retirement by the artistry of clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld.
Sat., April 29
Johannes Brahms: Violin Sonata in A Major, Op. 78; Clarinet Quintet in B Minor, Op. 115
The Smithsonian Chamber Players
Vera Beths and Meredith Riley, violin; Steven Dann, viola; Kenneth Slowik, violoncello and piano; Charles Neidich, clarinet
Program, location, and artists are subject to change.
To view other concerts in this Saturday classical concert series, click here. This concert series also is offered on Sunday dates.
