Bay Area music enthusiasts, get ready for a thrilling series of concerts featuring the timeless genius of Johann Sebastian Bach! From the intricate 'Contrapunctus XIV' to the festive 'Christmas Oratorio,' these events span across San Francisco, Berkeley, and Stanford, promising a musical journey like no other. Highlights include the Baroque extravaganza 'Concert Program I Baroque Tableau' in San Francisco, George Crumb's 'Black Angels' in Berkeley, and the world premiere of Nico Muhly’s Baroque-inspired Piano Concerto. Mark your calendars for this exhilarating celebration of Bach and beyond!

Bach-Inspired Concerts Across the Bay Area to Enchant Music Lovers

*Prelude Performances and Koret Young Performers Concerts feature young artists from the Chamber Music Institute. Admission is free.

EPSG:4326

Koret Young Performers Concert Iii

Menlo School Campus

With the passage of time, artists can disappear into obscurity while some emerge as immortal. The American George Crumb, who passed away in 2022, is undoubtedly in the pantheon of composers whose legacies are eternal. In this program, his cataclysmic Black Angels, a passionately anti-war statement for amplified string quartet, balances Olivier Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time), a devoutly spiritual, mystical work composed in a prisoner of war camp. And to open, J. S. Bach consecrates the concert hall with two of his most deeply felt, final works.

Concert Program Vii Renascence (livestream)

Online

Prelude Performance Xiii

Concert Program Vii Renascence

Stent Family Hall 

Vocal Exchange juxtaposes treasured songs from three cultures. Without needing to understand a single word, listeners will experience national flavors through the very sounds of the languages. Russian-American soprano Erika Baikoff (a fluent French speaker) offers her unsurpassed vocal skill and bewitching personality, with instrumental contrasts and reflections rounding out this multidimensional program.

Concert Program Vi Vocal Exchange (livestream)

Concert Program Vi Vocal Exchange

*Prelude Performances and Koret Young Performers Concerts feature young artists from the Chamber Music Institute. Admission is free

Prelude Performance Xii

Prelude Performance Xi

Former Principal Flutist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and renowned lecturer Michael Parloff explores two iconic masterpieces: George Crumb’s Black Angels and Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time. Michael offers a unique perspective on these iconic and deeply moving works, both of which made powerful anti-war statements and broke new ground in twentieth-century classical music.

Encounter Lecture Iii Crumb’s Black Angels And Messaien’s Quartet For The End Of Time With Michael Parloff

Exciting young Metropolitan Opera soprano Erika Baikoff returns to Music@Menlo to explore the broad, colorful art of French songs. Programmed in partnership with renowned pianist and vocal coach Ken Noda, the music of eleven different composers creates an entrancing immersion into some of chamber music’s most exquisite repertoire.

Carte Blanche Concert Iii Erika Baikoff, Soprano; Ken Noda, Piano

Prelude Performance X

After Mozart and Beethoven established the piano as an essential force in classical music, Russian and French Romantic composers took the instrument to the next level. Yet these distinct cultures sought profoundly different sounds: Anton Arensky and Sergei Rachmaninov bared the powerful soul of Russia, while Gabriel Fauré and Claude Debussy reveled in ethereal pleasures. Debussy’s iconic Jeux (Games) for orchestra is performed by eminent French pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (who arranged the work for two pianos) and Van Cliburn Competition prizewinner Anna Geniushene.

Concert Program V Piano/piano

Concert Program V Piano/piano (livestream)

Koret Young Performers Concert Ii

Anchored by one ensemble and one instrument, Trios and Trumpets gathers music from Austria, Hungary, and France. The piano trio is represented by W. A. Mozart and Cécile Chaminade, the first woman composer to receive the Légion d’honneur. Two lighthearted works with trumpet balance the trios: in Bohuslav Martinů’s fanciful La revue de cuisine, the instruments depict kitchen utensils, with the mirth vividly reflected in Camille Saint-Saëns’s jocular septet.

Concert Program Iv Trios And Trumpets (livestream)

Prelude Performance Ix

Anchored by one ensemble and one instrument, Trios and Trumpets gathers music from Austria, Hungary, and France. The piano trio is represented by W. A. Mozart and Cécile Chaminade, the first woman composer to receive the Legion d’honneur. Two lighthearted works with trumpet balance the trios: in Bohuslav Martinů’s fanciful La revue de cuisine, the instruments depict kitchen utensils, with the mirth vividly reflected in Camille Saint-Saëns’s jocular septet.

Concert Program Iv Trios And Trumpets

*Prelude Performances and Koret Young Performers Concerts feature young artists from the Chamber Music Institute. Admission is fre

Prelude Performance Vii

Music@Menlo’s Overture Concert presents the fruits of artistic collaboration between world-renowned festival artists and the exciting young International Program artists. Fresh new perspectives on chamber music emerge as seasoned performers share their expertise with rising stars of the stage.

Overture Concert Beethoven, Saint-saëns, Mendelssohn

Sustaining Music@Menlo’s tradition of one-of-a-kind concerts, the dynamic French virtuoso Jean-Efflam Bavouzet makes his festival debut with Maurice Ravel’s complete works for solo piano. An unrivaled artistic feat, this Carte Blanche program includes the composer’s most famous blockbusters and delightful miniatures beloved by both pianists and listeners.

Carte Blanche Concert Ii Jean-efflam Bavouzet, Piano

Like Mozart, Maurice Ravel excelled in every genre he touched, and his single string quartet is considered among the greatest composed. And when speaking of favorite quartets, no one would leave out the famous Adagio from Samuel Barber’s 1936 quartet, performed in this program by rising stars of the classical scene, the Viano String Quartet. Charles Martin Loeffler’s recently-discovered octet also provides a unique, American reflection on Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro, also featuring the harp.

Concert Program III: Quartets and Harps

Koret Young Performers Concert I

Concert Program Iii Quartets And Harps (Livestream)

Vienna and Paris have long been cultural powerhouses, from the visual to the literary to the musical. Joseph Haydn, the founder of the Classical style, and W. A. Mozart, who refined and augmented it, are represented in this program by beloved works for traditional chamber ensembles. After the intermission, French composers offer their different, effervescent perspectives on mixed ensembles and the piano trio.

Concert Program II: Vienna to Paris (Livestream)

Concert Program II: Vienna to Paris

Prelude Performance V

Prelude Performance IV

David Serkin Ludwig, the esteemed composer and Dean of the Juilliard School, delves into the mesmerizing world of Impressionism, a movement that not only reshaped the very essence of composition, but French culture as a whole. In this lecture, David’s vast musical knowledge will shed light on the lives and works of visionary composers, offering a fresh perspective on how Impressionism pushed the boundaries of artistic expression.

Encounter Lecture Ii Impressionist Music With David Serkin Ludwig

Prelude Performance Iii

Festival favorites Kristin Lee and Michael Stephen Brown present a mesmerizing recital exploring the interplay between French and American music. The program features works by pioneering female composers Lili Boulanger and Amy Beach, each emblematic in their respective nations’ musical heritage. French icons Debussy and Ravel are also stylistically mirrored in unforgettable works by Bloch and Gershwin.

Carte Blanche Concert I Kristin Lee, Violin; Michael Stephen Brown, Piano

Prelude Performance II

With a livestream subscription you will get access to video recordings of all seven Concert Programs. Watch along in real time or revisit the performances on demand for one week following their premiere:

Concert Programs Complete Livestream Subscription

The golden age of the Baroque saw musical explosions of invention across Europe; mathematical precision in Germany contrasted French flights of fancy in Versailles. In this opening program, J. S. Bach’s classic double concerto for oboe and violin is followed by a dramatic shift in style from French luminaries François Couperin and Jean-Philippe Rameau, with Jean-Féry Rebel’s Les Élémens providing a provocative and lively finale.

Concert Program I Baroque Tableau (livestream)

Concert Program I Baroque Tableau

Prelude Performance I

Embark on an enriching and personal journey into the heart of French culture with distinguished lecturer, writer, and teacher Juliette de Marcellus. To open the 2024 festival, she delves into the essence of French art, culture, and heritage, setting the stage for an exploration of the timeless beauty and creativity that define French musical traditions.

Introduction To France With Juliette De Marcellus

In a world where film and music are inseparably linked, Music@Menlo will focus its lens on the relationship between composers and “the seventh art.” Music has always played a paramount role in the movie theater, supporting the rich emotional connection between the audience and the silver screen, and many composers have been deeply influenced by cinema’s traditions, tropes, and heritage. This Focus Residency will explore the why and how behind several such composers’ works as our camera moves through all the angles: music written for cinema, because of it, mimicking it, and even establishing the cinematic sound. Join us for a fascinating look into the life and works of several composers, featuring Dmitry Shostakovich and his relationship to Soviet cinema; the chamber music of Nino Rota, the man behind The Godfather; Patrick Castillo, a name so dear to Music@Menlo, and his fascination with Ingmar Bergman; the vibrant world of Libby Larsen and her dive into the smoky atmosphere of film noir; and, of course, the “Father of Soundtrack,“ the “Haydn of Film Music“ himself: Erich Wolfgang Korngold.

Concert Program

Behind The Music

“We are so excited and proud to return to Menlo and bring you this passionately romantic program full of verve and imagination. We start our concert with a new work by the phenomenal young composer Julia Adolphe who wrote the piece for us in memory of her father. This emotional and life-affirming trio was premiered by us at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center earlier this year, and we can‘t wait to introduce it to the Menlo Audience. The rest of the program features the Great Romantics; Edvard Grieg, Cecile Chaminade; a Trailblazer for female composers in the 19th Century; and we finish the program with Felix Mendelssohn‘s 2nd Piano Trio, undoubtedly one of his finest and most dramatic works. We can‘t wait to see you at our performance!” —The Sitkovetsky Trio

The Sitkovesky Trio

St Bede's Episcopal Church

CONCERT PROGRAM VI: Chamber Music Now

In response to the popularity of these events, a free ticket is required for all Prelude Performances and Koret Young Performers Concerts. Free tickets can be requested at will call beginning one hour prior to the start of each concert or reserved online in advance on the day of the event after 9:00 a.m. Seating is limited and by general admission. Learn more about how to reserve your free ticket.

Koret Young Performers Concert III

Moderated by Performance Today host Fred Child, this enlightening Café Conversation looks at the challenges and trends as classical music flourishes in the twenty-first century. Entrance is free and reservations are not required.

Café Conversation: Composing Classical Music In The Twenty-first Century

Each weekday of the festival at 11:00 a.m., our “Mornings@Menlo” sessions feature either a master class with the Chamber Music Institute’s young artists, or a Café Conversation. The Institute’s master classes offer visitors the opportunity to witness the exchange between artist and apprentice, and culminate in the festival’s series of Prelude Performances and Koret Young Performers Concerts.,

Master Class With Mika Sasaki

In the final Encounter of the season, composer and dean of the Juilliard School David Serkin Ludwig reveals how Beethoven's work and life changed the world and shaped the art of music.

The Beethoven Effect With David Serkin Ludwig

Each weekday of the festival at 11:00 a.m., our “Mornings@Menlo” sessions feature either a master class with the Chamber Music Institute’s young artists, or a Café Conversation. The Institute’s master classes offer visitors the opportunity to witness the exchange between artist and apprentice, and culminate in the festival’s series of Prelude Performances and Koret Young Performers Concerts.

Master Class With Arnaud Sussman

Master Class With Calidore String Quartet

Each weekday of the festival at 11:00 a.m., our “Mornings@Menlo” sessions feature either a master class with the Chamber Music Institute’s young artists, or a Café Conversation. The Institute’s master classes offer visitors the opportunity to witness the exchange between artist and apprentice, and culminate in the festival’s series of Prelude Performances and Koret Young Performers Concerts

Master Class With Gilbert Kalish

The artistic, political, and social explosions that began at the start of the twentieth century presaged one hundred years of turmoil, and composers realized that musical rules were no more. Variety abounded; no musical style dominated, and anyone could become an artist. This eclectic sampling of music from the most changeable era in world history was foreshadowed by Beethoven, whose creativity and artistic independence remained unmatched.

CONCERT PROGRAM V: The Turbulent Century

Prelude Performance IX

Koret Young Performers Concert II

 The Overture Concerts feature International Program performers in collaboration with festival main-stage artists, providing a unique experience for audience members and musicians alike. This summer, International Program artists will perform across two concert programs side by side with violinists Paul Huang and Arnaud Sussmann, violists Matthew Lipman and Paul Neubauer, cellist Mihai Marica, oboist James Austin Smith, clarinetist David Shifrin, and pianists Gilbert Kalish and Wu Han.

Overture Concert II: Suk & Elgar

Master Class With Wu Qian

As the Romantic movement matured, music became more about art, nature, and experiences. The French rallied behind the sensuous music of their country following the Franco-Prussian War; Russians told sad tales from their vast and cold land; Bohemians mined the folk traditions of their countrymen; and composers such as Brahms shared their most personal thoughts with the world.

Concert Program IV: Romantic Twilight

Master Class With Bella Hristova

Prelude Performance VIII

Master Class With Matthew Lipman

Master Class With Tommaso Lonquich

Prelude Performance VII

Master Class With Dmitri Atapine And Hyeyeon Park

Prelude Performance VI

The “musician as hero” was invented by Beethoven when he chose to triumph over deafness and fulfill his artistic destiny. Beginning in 1803, a decade of masterpieces cemented his reputation not only as the world’s most famous musician, but also as an artist who was unequivocally his own muse. His triumphs over adversity opened the doors of musical imagination to composers everywhere, from the young, awestruck Schubert to the visionary women composer-performers Louise Farrenc and Clara Schumann.

Concert Program III: From The Heart

Following the death of Haydn in 1809, his sixty-eight string quartets would spur subsequent composers to write some of their greatest music. Violinist Aaron Boyd explores not only the Beethoven quartets inspired by Haydn's genius, but also the historic ensembles—from the nineteenth century's Schuppanzigh and Joachim Quartets to the dynamic ensembles of our own day—who have brought them to life.

Encounter Lecture II: Quartets For The End Of Time With Aaron Boyd

Extraordinary concerts performed by the Young Performers program artists of the Chamber Music Institute.

Overture Concert I: Mozart, Brahms, Fauré

Master Class With Paul Huang

Master Class With David Requiro

A straight line leads from Bach, the musical monarch of the Baroque, to Beethoven, the composer who would reinvent the art in its entirety. Along the way, many composers made weighty contributions: Bach’s sons attained fame with more populist music; Haydn invented the symphony and string quartet; and virtually everything that Mozart created was of unearthly beauty. Riding on all this momentum, a youthful Beethoven broke from the starting gate, stunning the musical establishment with works of unimagined daring, invention, and excitement. 

Concert Program II: Bach To Beethoven

Masterclass With Orli Shaham

Master Class With Ani Kavafian

Music@Menlo’s Café Conversations explore a multitude of topics from unique perspectives. This distinctive series of free and informal discussion events led by festival musicians and distinguished guests offers audiences an engaging forum to explore music, art, and culture.

Café Conversation: Preparing The Beethoven Quartet Cycle

Prelude Performance III

Music from the Baroque era stimulates the senses, lifts the spirits, and inspires faith in all things good. The evolution of everything in music—from the art of counterpoint to the invention of new forms—transformed Baroque composers into unstoppable creators as they experimented with new musical styles and combinations of instruments. In this opening concert, we’ll experience six trailblazing composers showing their skills in a colorful collection of instruments and ensembles.

Concert Program I: Baroque Splendor

Biographer of Beethoven, Ives, Brahms, and Mozart, Jan Swafford has served as a program annotator for the Cleveland, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, and New York Symphony Orchestras, the Metropolitan Opera, and Carnegie Hall. In this Encounter, he will journey through Beethoven's life and career, revealing the composer's creative habits, his musical innovations, and the skills and temperament that secured him an unchallenged place in music history.

Encounter Lecture I: Beethoven’s Workshop With Jan Swafford

This concert follows the previous day’s screening of Martin Goldsmith’s deeply moving film Winter Journey. It includes works by composers who were silenced as victims of the Holocaust, as well as works performed by the Jüdischer Kulturbund.

Focus Residency: Winter Journey In Concert

This Focus Residency takes its inspiration from writer Martin Goldsmith’s book The Inextinguishable Symphony, in which he shares the remarkable true story of his parents, Gunther Goldschmidt and Rosemarie Gumpert Goldschmidt. During the Nazi regime, they were members of the all-Jewish orchestra, the Jüdischer Kulturbund, a group maintained as a propaganda tool by the Nazi Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels. The Goldschmidts’s participation in this group ultimately helped save their lives in Nazi Germany, and Goldsmith’s book inspired the making of a film, Winter Journey, which will be screened on March 25 preceding a Q&A with the author. The following day’s concert program features works for winds and piano, including works by composers who were silenced as victims of the Holocaust, as well as works performed by the Jüdischer Kulturbund.

Focus Residency: Winter Journey, Behind The Music (Movie Screening And Q&A)

Enjoy a convivial afternoon of chamber music and mingle with brilliant young artists at Music@Menlo’s 2023 Benefit Concert and Reception. This special event supports the Ann S. Bowers Young Artist Fund, and features alumni of Music@Menlo’s Chamber Music Institute. The concert includes a sneak preview of what’s to come at the 2023 festival, and a dessert-and-wine reception with the musicians.

2023 Benefit Concert And Reception

Following the previous night’s musical discussion, this concert begins with selections from J.S. Bach’s final work, The Art of Fugue. Pianist Gilles Vonsattel then presents music by two other admirers of Bach: Shostakovich and Mendelssohn, before Beethoven’s celebrated final piano sonata. Join us for a fascinating journey through some of the most beautiful piano music.

Focus Residency: Gilles Vonsattel, Concert Program

This December, renowned pianist Gilles Vonsattel presents a brand-new residency, titled The End/So Beautiful and Free. The program explores the sense of endings in music, and is built upon Ludwig van Beethoven‘s final piano sonata. As Gilles says, “The title refers to the extraordinary way in which Beethoven chooses to end his final sonata - a kind of celestial evaporation. I’ve always loved the famous Doors song The End, and there is something I found oddly similar in spirit between these two pieces of music.”

Focus Residency: Gilles Vonsattel, Behind The Music

In partnership with The Violin Channel, we are excited to share this special virtual gathering to remember celebrated violinist and San Francisco native Isaac Stern. 2020 marks the centenary of Mr. Stern’s birth, a fitting opportunity to honor a giant of musical life whose passion for teaching and championing young artists influenced generations of musicians. The panelists are Isaac Stern’s son, the conductor Michael Stern, violinist Erin Keefe who participated in the last chamber music Encounters led by Mr. Stern, David Finckel and Wu Han, and Ara Guzelimian as a former faculty member of Mr. Stern’s chamber music teaching team.

Remembering Isaac Stern, Artist and Teacher

Great works have been inspired not only by lofty ideals, but also by the colorful music composers heard played as entertainment outside the concert hall. Among the most mesmerizing performers heard by composers such as Joseph Haydn and Johannes Brahms were the itinerant Roma, whose musical skills combined almost supernatural virtuosity with visceral excitement. Later, before tragically perishing in a Nazi prison, Erwin Schulhoff composed stunning, eclectic music that drew on idioms from folk to jazz, and the Spanish virtuoso Pablo de Sarasate provided violinists with ideal vehicles for simply showing off. Music@Menlo’s twentieth season appropriately closes with Brahms’s first piano quartet, its Rondo alla Zingarese finale, perhaps the greatest chamber music crowd-pleaser of them all.

This concert is preceded by a free afternoon Koret Young Performers Concert (KYPC) at 12:30 p.m. by the 2022 Young Performers Program artists. KYPC programs will be announced in May.

CONCERT PROGRAM VIII Folk Spirit

Violinist Bella Hristova and pianist Shai Wosner present a recital program anchored by two violin sonatas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whom Haydn proclaimed to be “much my superior.” The program also features two fantasies that highlight the celestial quality of these sonatas: Mozart’s Fantasy in C minor, completed by Robert Levin, and David Serkin Ludwig’s haunting Swan Song, the latter an homage to the fantasies of Franz Schubert.

Carte Blanche Concert III

Bella Hristova, Violin; Shai Wosner, Piano

For the season’s final Encounter, renowned academic Ara Guzelimian shines a revealing light on Music@Menlo itself, on the occasion of the festival’s twentieth anniversary. The evening provides both a retrospective and a look towards the future of the chamber music medium, with voices from the past 20 years of Music@Menlo. A host of eminent musicians and classical music experts share their experience of artistic venture that evolved from a start-up project into one of the world’s leading chamber music festivals.

Join us after the Encounter at 8 p.m. for Fête the Festival, an outdoor catered dinner with the Artistic Directors and festival artists!

ENCOUNTER III Music@Menlo At 20

The Overture Concerts feature International Program performers in collaboration with festival main-stage artists, providing a unique experience for audience members and musicians alike. This summer, International Program artists will perform across two concert programs side by side with violinists Bella Hristova, James Thompson, and Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu, violists Matthew Lipman and Paul Neubauer, cellist Mihai Marica, pianist Shai Wosner, and clarinetist Tommaso Lonquich.

Overture Concert II Schumann, Schubert, And Suk

The Overture Concerts feature International Program performers in collaboration with festival main-stage artists, providing a unique experience for audience members and musicians alike. This summer, International Program artists will perform across two concert programs side by side with violinists Bella Hristova, James Thompson, and Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu, violists Matthew Lipman and Paul Neubauer, cellist Mihai Marica, pianist Shai Wosner, and clarinetist Tommaso Lonquich.

This concert series functions as an “overture” to the future of chamber music: world-renowned festival artists share their knowledge, experience, and expertise with the burgeoning International Program musicians as they perform side by side. The artists collectively bridge the gap between the traditions of the past, the master performers of today, and the exciting musical possibilities of tomorrow. Please join us to experience the fruits of their collaboration and to witness a glimpse of the bright future of chamber music.

Schumann, Schubert And Suk

“This is a program of works that kept me company during the lockdown and carried me through the most difficult times. They explore the gamut of emotions and speak to the most vulnerable places of the human spirit. There are many threads uniting the music—the celebration of Haydn, the experience of injury and heartbreak, the influence of nature, and the evocation of dance. This program is a window into my inner world, presenting composers that I love while illuminating connections between music and life.”

Michael Brown, Piano

“This is a program of works that kept me company during the lockdown and carried me through the most difficult times. They explore the gamut of emotions and speak to the most vulnerable places of the human spirit. There are many threads uniting the music—the celebration of Haydn, the experience of injury and heartbreak, the influence of nature, and the evocation of dance. This program is a window into my inner world, presenting composers that I love while illuminating connections between music and life.” —Michael Stephen Brown

Carte Blanche Concert II

Haydn is well-known for his 104 symphonies and 68 string quartets, but his piano trios supply equal delight for listeners and inspiring challenges for performers. In this program, we hear the direct effect of Haydn’s genius on Beethoven, as three familiar and formidable Music@Menlo musicians tackle a four-work juxtaposition of seminal trios by both composers. We will hear each composer’s trios evolve, as they did side by side in Vienna, where Haydn and Beethoven enjoyed a cordial if somewhat competitive relationship. Beethoven’s Ghost Trio concludes, its eerie slow movement reportedly inspired by the witches’ scene from Macbeth.

This concert is preceded by a free afternoon Koret Young Performers Concert (KYPC) at 12:30 p.m. by the 2022 Young Performers Program artists. KYPC programs will be announced in May.

Concert Program VII From Haydn

Haydn is well-known for his 104 symphonies and 68 string quartets, but his piano trios supply equal delight for listeners and inspiring challenges for performers. In this program, we hear the direct effect of Haydn’s genius on Beethoven, as three familiar and formidable Music@Menlo musicians tackle a four-work juxtaposition of seminal trios by both composers. We will hear each composer’s trios evolve, as they did side by side in Vienna, where Haydn and Beethoven enjoyed a cordial if somewhat competitive relationship. Beethoven’s Ghost Trio concludes, its eerie slow movement reportedly inspired by the witches’ scene from Macbeth.

This concert is preceded by a free afternoon Prelude Performance at 5 p.m. by the 2022 International Program artists. Prelude programs will be announced in May.

CONCERT PROGRAM VII From Haydn

A Little Fun celebrates music’s power to express the depths of profundity and the height of absurdity in a program that unashamedly combines the sublime with the ridiculous. Well-behaved all the way to its conclusion, Joseph Haydn’s quartet nick-named The Joke plays a cunning prank on the audience, not to be revealed in advance! Jumping centuries, Charles Ives’s only piano trio combines transcendental serenity in its outer movements with the self-proclaimed outrageousness of its scherzo, titled TSIAJ (This Scherzo is a Joke). The twentieth-century Russians Alfred Schnittke and Dmitry Shostakovich supply potent doses of ironic humor, and Haydn gets the last word with a clever arrangement for chamber ensemble of his Surprise Symphony, so nicknamed on account of a single, outrageous note.

This concert is preceded by a free afternoon Prelude Performance at 5 p.m. by the 2022 International Program artists. Prelude programs will be announced in May.

CONCERT PROGRAM VI A Little Fun

Bestowing possibly the greatest music review in history, Joseph Haydn remarked to Leopold Mozart in 1785, “Before God and as an honest man, I tell you that your son is the greatest composer known to me either in person or by name.” In this program, you will hear the exact quartet by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart that inspired these words, preceded by one of Haydn’s finest works that inspired Mozart to dedicate quartets to the elder master. French composers Reynaldo Hahn, Paul Dukas, Vincent D’Indy, and Charles-Marie Widor contribute colorful homages to Haydn, for solo piano, written on the hundredth anniversary of his death. Concluding the concert is a bracing juxtaposition of the defining giants of Impressionism, Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, bringing their mutual respect—and perhaps even rivalry—to life on stage.

This concert is preceded by a free afternoon Prelude Performance at 5 p.m. by the 2022 International Program artists. Prelude programs will be announced in May.

CONCERT PROGRAM V Admiration

This eclectic program celebrates both a beloved instrument and classical music’s most rigorous contrapuntal form. Arguably the king of musical innovators, Joseph Haydn took from the past and created the future, as in his Opus 20 Quartet which begins with a cello solo (a historical first) and concludes with a lively fugue that could have come straight from the pen of J.S. Bach. From cellist-composers Luigi Boccherini and Michael Finckel (David Finckel’s cousin) to the Frenchman Alexandre Tansman and the Russian Aleksandr Glazunov, we will hear cellos throughout this concert in delightful combinations, even cello quartets, with exhilarating fugues popping up unexpectedly.

CONCERT PROGRAM IV Cellos And Fugues

Visual artists captured the exhilaration, drama, and deadliness of the hunt, and composers were similarly inspired, replicating the sonics and spirit of the chase through music. Indeed, Joseph Haydn’s very first quartet is subtitled La chasse, which opens with the iconic sound of hunting horns. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s quartet bears the same nickname, for good reason. A century later, Johannes Brahms alluded to the hunt in his final quartet, and in Jörg Widmann’s delightfully macabre Hunting Quartet, the cellist, playing the role of the animal, is pursued by her colleagues and issues a blood-curdling scream of death near the conclusion.

CONCERT PROGRAM III The Thrill of the Hunt

Haydn’s corpus of nearly 70 string quartets testifies to his standing as the genre’s foundational figure. Without question, the quartets of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, and all who have followed over the subsequent two centuries descend from those of Haydn. At this summer’s second Encounter, violinist Aaron Boyd gets under the hood of Haydn’ string quartets, illuminating the compose’s singular ingenuity in this form. This event features live musical illustrations performed by a quartet of festival artists.

This Encounter lecture is preceded by a free afternoon Prelude Performance at 5 p.m. by the 2022 International Program artists. Prelude programs will be announced in May.

Music@Menlo

Aug 10, 2024

Koret Young Performers Concert Iii

Aug 10, 2024

Concert Program Vii Renascence (livestream)

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