Curated by Artistic Director Marcus Thompson, this virtual concert is presented as video and audio on demand. The program includes an introduction by Thompson, new video performances by our member musicians and special guests made especially for the event, interviews of the artists, and favorite archival audio recordings from recent Sanders Theatre concerts approved by the musicians.

New video performances:

Enescu
Concert Piece for Viola and Piano

Beethoven
Violin Sonata in G major, Op. 96

From our concert audio archive:

Mozart
Piano Quintet in E-flat Major, K. 493 (recorded Sept. 24, 2017 at Sanders Theatre)
String Quintet in C major, K. 515 (recorded on Sept. 22, 2019 at Sanders Theatre)

Featured Musicians:

Yura Lee and Alexi Kenney, violins | Dimitri Murrath and Marcus Thompson, violas | Raman Ramakrishnan and Edward Arron, cellos | Max Levinson, Julio Elizalde and Hyeyeon Park, pianos

About the Music
Commissioned by Gabriel Fauré for the annual competition of the Paris Conservatoire, Enescu’s Concert Piece for Viola and Piano is an early work in the prodigious violinist/violist composer’s output. Its linking of musicality with exacting technical demands has earned the work an established place in the viola literature.

Written in the midst of Napoleon’s decline, Beethoven’s Violin Sonata in G major, Op. 96 exemplifies the composer’s shift away from the grandiose style of his heroic works and towards a more subdued aesthetic in step with the new social climate. Violin and piano are equal partners in this serene work, dedicated to Beethoven’s piano student the Archduke Rudolphe.

Woven from echoes, the Larghetto in the Piano Quartet in E-flat major is one of Mozart’s most elegant slow movements. The piano leads the way in the last movement, dancing in technical flourishes around the united strings.

A masterpiece of Mozart’s mature period, the String Quintet in C major offers a balanced presentation of contrapuntal processes and sublime melodic interactions. A paradigm of Classical elegance, the work spotlights Mozart’s preferred string instrument, the viola.