The Ciompi has been Duke’s resident string quartet for over four decades, while New York’s Borromeo — with first violinist Nicholas Kitchen, who was raised in Durham — has been gathering major awards since 1992. At Reynolds, these exquisite ensembles combine their talents in two sumptuous octets, one blending late-Romantic styles with early modernism that Romanian prodigy George Enescu wrote when he was only 19 and another that Mendelssohn wrote at the unbelievable age of 16. Meanwhile, Ciompi’s individual performance of Haydn’s august String Quartet in C Major, Op. 20, No. 2 tempers the precocious program with a dignified maturity.

HAYDN: String Quartet in C Major, Op. 20, No. 2
GEORGE ENESCU: Octet for Strings in C Major, Op. 7
MENDELSSOHN: Octet for Strings in E-flat Major, Op. 16