The best qualities of Old Europe and new America unite in this concert of Czech chamber music, a noble tradition personified in the Talich Quartet. With a roster established in 1964 and then refreshed in the early nineties, the Talich is sought around the world for its “handsome and refined sound” (Washington Post). The Quartet finds a perfect complement in the reflective young American Orion Weiss, a pianist of “exceptionally clean technique with virtuosity to spare” (Washington Post).
This uniquely structured concert gives both the Talich and Weiss ample space to showcase their individual talents: the Quartet on two zeniths of Czech chamber music, Dvořák’s Cypresses and Janáček’s Kreutzer Sonata; the pianist on Bohuslav Martinů’s nervy Fantasie and Toccata for solo piano, a tour de force he dispatches with great conviction. All the musicians then come together to conclude with an undisputed masterpiece of the string quintet form, Dvořák’s Piano Quintet in A Major.
PROGRAM:
DVOŘÁK: Selections from Cypresses, B.152
JANÁČEK: String Quartet No. 1, Kreutzer Sonata
MARTINŮ: Fantasie and Toccata, H.281 (feat. Orion Weiss, solo piano)
DVOŘÁK: Piano Quintet No. 2 in A Major, Op. 81 (w/ Orion Weiss, piano)
