The Ciompi’s season finale opens with Schubert’s popular “Quartettsatz” in C Minor, D. 703. The quartet is then joined by countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, a Durham native who performs regularly at the Metropolitan Opera, and whose singing has been called “miraculous” by the Globe and Mail. Costanzo, supported by the Ciompi, harpsichordist Elaine Funaro, and Duke string students, sings selected arias by Handel. Next, the Ciompi unveil a new quartet by Duke professor and award-winning composer Stephen Jaffe, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The Ciompi season comes to a verdant close with two magnificent works of French romanticism: Henri Duparc’s Three Songs for Voice and String Quartet and Ernest Chausson’s plaintive Chanson perpetuelle, op. 37.

Schubert: String Quartet No. 12 in C Minor, D.703 (“Quartettsatz”)
Handel: Arias for countertenor and strings
Stephen Jaffe: String Quartet No. 3 (“A Tapestry”) — world premiere
Henri Duparc: Three songs for voice and string quartet (transcribed by David Kirkland Garner)
Ernest Chausson: Chanson perpetuelle, op. 37