The Ariel Quartet formed in a Jerusalem high school and traveled together to study in America. Here they met and bonded with Alisa Weilerstein, an up-and-coming cellist. Today, the Ariel is a rising star on the international chamber music scene, hailed for their “utter musicality and remarkable interpretive power” by the American Record Guide, and Weilerstein is one of the finest cellists in the world, the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” grant.

The Ariel opens the program with an early Beethoven quartet that brings out the young composer’s brilliant wit. Then Weilerstein joins her friends to perform two all-time classic quintets for the unusual double-cello instrumentation — Boccherini’s, with its instantly-recognizable minuet, and Schubert’s, which pianist Arthur Rubinstein called “the entrance to heaven.”

Beethoven: String Quartet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 18, No. 2

Boccherini: String Quintet in E Major, Op. 11, No. 5

Schubert: String Quintet in C Major, D. 956