“Powerful,” “striking,” and “razor-sharp” (Chicago Tribune), Antares is configured to match the arrangement of Olivier Messiaen’s visionary “Quartet for the End of Time,” which was written in a Nazi camp, with access to performers of only piano, violin, cello, and clarinet.  For this special two-concert event, Antares fills the intimate Nelson Music Room with the idiosyncratic beauty of this unusual combination.

The Friday performance contrasts the venerable Brahms Clarinet Trio with a quartet written for Peter Serkin’s chamber group (“Tashi”), and with a new work by Caroline Mallonée, a recent recipient of the doctorate in musical composition from Duke.  The Saturday program begins with the lush Ravel Piano Trio, intervenes with Bartok’s “Contrasts,” and ends with the luminescent work by Messiaen — in Antares’ hands, “radiant with otherworldly majesty” (Washington Post).

Saturday, March 27
Ravel: Piano Trio in A Minor
Bartók: “Contrasts”
Messiaen: “Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps” (“Quartet for the End of Time”)

“[Antares] has the gift of making whatever they’re playing seem the most important piece in the world.”
— Gramophone

Additional Events:
Master class with Antares
Saturday, March 27, 2010 • noon
Nelson Music Room

Friday, March 26
Brahms: Clarinet Trio in A Minor, Op. 114
Caroline Mallonée: New Work (2010)
Peter Lieberson: “Tashi Quartet”