This subscription option features Sunday dates.
Smithsonian Chamber Music Society audiences are privy to the unparalleled experience of being able to hear two magnificent quartets of instruments—one made by Antonio Stradivari, the other by his teacher Nicolo Amati—in this popular three-concert series. This concert series is also offered on Saturday dates.
One hour prior to each program Kenneth Slowik, SCMS artistic director, continues his popular pre-concert lectures, shedding light on the lives and times of the featured composers and their glorious music.
Over the course of the season, the Axelrod String Quartet concludes its traversal—begun last season—of Haydn’s Op. 76 quartets. Each program is further developed around the presence of guest artists.
For the November concert, Deborah Dunham lends the profound voice of her instrument to Dvorak’s String Quintet in G Major, Op. 77, which the Axelrod introduces with his Quartet in D Minor, Op. 34.
Following its January tradition, the Axelrod invites a promising quartet in its early career to participate in a gala, all-Stradivarius-and-Amati reading of the Mendelssohn Octet. This year’s choice is the Excelsa Quartet, the prize-winning graduate quartet-in-residence at the University of Maryland. Mendelssohn’s A Minor Quartet, based on his song Frage (“Question”), fills out the program.
For the final concert, one of Schubert’s most intriguing early quartets is paired with his incomparable two-cello Quintet, d956. Guest cellist Norman Fischer wields the powerful 1701 “Servais” Strad for these memorable performances.
The Axelrod String Quartet
Marc Destrube, violin; Marilyn McDonald, violin; James Dunham, viola; Kenneth Slowik, violoncello
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CONCERT SCHEDULE
Sun., Nov. 8
Haydn: Quartet in G Major, Op. 76, No. 1
Dvorak: Quartet in D Minor, Op. 34
Dvorak: String Quintet in G Major, Op. 77 (with Deborah Dunham, double bass)
Location: Hall of Music, American History Museum
Sun., Jan. 24 (CANCELED DUE TO WINTER WEATHER)
Haydn: Quartet in D Major, Op. 76, No. 5
Mendelssohn: Quartet in A Minor, Op. 13
Mendelssohn: Octet in E-flat Major, Op. 20 (with The Excelsa Quartet: Laura Colgate and Audrey Wright, violins; Valentina Shohdy, viola; Kacy Clopton, violoncello)
Location: Hall of Music, American History Museum
Sun., March 6 (REPERTOIRE UPDATE)
Mendelssohn: Octet in E-flat Major, Op. 20 (with The Excelsa Quartet: Laura Colgate and Audrey Wright, violins; Valentina Shohdy, viola; Kacy Clopton, violoncello)
Schubert: Quintet in C Major, d956 (with Norman Fischer, violoncello)
Location: Hall of Music, American History Museum
Sunday Series (3 concerts): CODE: BPP4
Program, location, and artists are subject to change.
