22/23 Chamber Player Series

Embark on a musical journey from the bright and sunny to the stormy and emotionally exhilarating. The CSO Chamber Players bring to life Gounod’s delightful Petite symphonie, Schumann’s frenetic Piano Quartet and Beethoven’s tempestuous String Quintet, aptly nicknamed Sturm ("Storm").

Beautiful and melancholic, Penderecki’s Quartet for Clarinet and String Trio opens a program featuring some of the most impassioned music ever written for chamber ensembles. From Harbison’s Quintet for Winds to Penderecki’s Duo Concertante and Brahms’ String Quartet in B-flat Major, revel in the chatter between winds and strings and the tender melodic lines only Brahms can conjure.

Schumann and Schubert, titans and virtuosos of chamber music, are at the pinnacle of their writing in this program. Schumann called his string quartet a “beautiful and even abstrusely woven conversation among four people” while Schubert’s Octet explores a deeply rich and melodic tale that ends in a rhythmic dance of joviality.

Inspired by the Book of Revelations, Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time was written while the composer was in a prisoner-of-war camp during the early days of World War II. Composed based on the instruments available to him at the time, each movement of the piece relates to the apocalyptic literature and the quartet’s fury unfolds alongside hauntingly beautiful patches of ethereal wonder. Opening the program is Bozza's complex and virtuosic duet for bassoons and Brahms' Horn Trio, his only dedicated chamber work for the horn.