In its 43rd season, Smithsonian Chamber Music Society audiences have the unparalleled experience of being able to hear two magnificent quartets of instruments—one made by Antonio Stradivari, the other by his teacher Nicolò Amati—in this popular three-concert series.
GENERAL INFORMATION
- Axelrod String Quartet musicians: Marc Destrubé, violin; Marilyn McDonald, violin; James Dunham, viola; Kenneth Slowik, violoncello
- Location: American History Museum’s intimate Nicholas and Eugenia Taubman Hall of Music
- 6:30 p.m. pre-concert lectures with Kenneth Slowik, the ensemble’s artistic director, shedding light on each performance's music and the featured composers.
- The Axelrod Quartet concert series also has Sunday dates.
2019-2020 SEASON REPERTOIRE & DATES
Please Note: As of Sept. 16, single concert tickets are available for purchase.
Throughout the season, the Axelrod String Quartet continues its Haydn programming with three of the ingenious quartets of his Op. 50, complemented by quartets from leading 20th-century exponents of the genre, Béla Bartók, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Benjamin Britten.
Sat., Nov. 2, 2019
The ASQ’s original violist, Steven Dann, returns to perform the last of Mozart’s six viola quintets in November.
Haydn: Quartet in F-sharp Minor, Op. 50, No. 4
Shostakovich: Quartet in F Major, Op. 73
Mozart: Quintet in E-flat Major, K614
with Steven Dann, viola
Sat., Jan. 25, 2020
The January program includes the first of Beethoven’s groundbreaking quartets dedicated to the Russian Prince Razumovsky.
Haydn: Quartet in D Major, Op. 50, No. 6 (“The Frog”)
Britten: Quartet No. 2 in C Major, Op. 36
Beethoven: Quartet in F Major, Op. 59, No. 1
Sat., May 9, 2020
In May, the Omer Quartet joins the Axelrod players in a gala all-Stradivarius-and-Amati reading of Felix Mendelssohn’s precocious Octet in E-flat Major.
Haydn: Quartet in C Major, Op. 50, No. 2
Bartók: Quartet No. 6, Sz 114
Mendelssohn: Octet in E-flat Major, Op. 20
with the Omer Quartet: Mason Yu and Erica Tursi, violins; Jinsung Hong, viola; Alexander Cox, violoncello
3 concerts
NOTE: Subscribers to this Axelrod series are offered admission to the lectures and concerts of the Smithsonian Haydn Academy, an intensive week in early January during which a dozen exceptional young players work with members of the Axelrod, Smithson, Artaria, New Esterházy, Eybler, and Diderot quartets to explore the 18 quartets of Haydn’s Opp. 9, 17, and 20, ca. 1769–1772. (Further details provided to subscribers.)
