In the Ciompi Quartet’s venerable tradition of opening each season with a work by Haydn, this program begins with the vivacious String Quartet in B-flat Major, op. 50, no. 1, the first of the composer’s Prussian quartets. Beethoven’s String Quartet in F Minor, op. 95 (“Serioso”), follows, a compact composition with a sense of liberation that echoes the bravura Overture from Egmont. In the evening’s boldly expressive finale, Brahms’ Piano Quintet in F Minor, op. 34, the Ciompi are joined by Awadagin Pratt, a charismatic pianist who started his illustrious career with a Naumburg International Piano Competition win and an Avery Fisher Career Grant. “Pratt plays with a full-bodied intensity that can be at turns intimate and grandly heart-wrenching. He has a story to tell, and you can hear him agonizing over every twist. Pratt commands your unfailing attention” (Newsweek).
Haydn: String Quartet in B-flat Major, op. 50, no. 1
Beethoven: String Quartet in F Minor, op. 95 (“Serioso”)
Brahms: Piano Quintet in F Minor, op. 34