The Festival @ Home series of concert broadcasts kicks-off from The Space at THIS IS RED—the historic St. Michael's Slovakian Roman Catholic church, now turned event space, in Pittsburgh. Enjoy a quintet of Festival Orchestra musicians performing Mozart’s String Quintet in G minor, a piece widely considered the most heartfelt of the great composer’s string quintets.
Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8 was dedicated “to the victims of fascism and the war.” It’s likely a very autobiographical work that features a musical monogram, a means by which Shostakovich inserted his own voice into the musical narrative in a very under-the-radar way. The story is that, upon hearing it played for the first time by the Borodin Quartet, he buried his head in his hands and wept. In contrast, Mozart’s sunny String Quartet K. 465, nicknamed the “Dissonance” for its famous opening, moves quickly from darkness into light and remains there.
Often considered Brahms’s greatest chamber work, the Piano Quintet in F Minor had a complex compositional history. Completed in 1864, it began life two years earlier as a string quintet, which was then transcribed for two pianos. In its final form, it is notable for its musical cohesiveness and a brooding quality that ranges from the tragic to the practically possessed. Join Festival musicians for this special chamber concert in the Pavilion.
For their chamber music concert this year, the Festival’s resident string quartet takes on Brahms’s earnest, yet lovely, String Quartet No. 2. The piece is full of canons, or imitative melodies (a nod to Bach), and Hungarian themes (perhaps a nod to violinist Joseph Joachim, who played the premiere). Following, the Quartet will play Haydn’s Quartet Op. 76 No. 2, another formally serious but lively and gracious work, also with nods to Bach (note the canon in the 3rd movement) and Hungarian flourishes in the finale.