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Duke Arts Presents

Elias String Quartet

Saturday, March 21, 2015 | 8:00 pm

Baldwin Auditorium


Formed at Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music and nurtured in Cologne, Germany, the Elias String Quartet has attracted notice for playing with “a beautiful sound, burnished yet translucent” (Sunday Times).

The opening work is Mozart’s best-known string quartet, called the “Dissonance” for its bold departure from the standard rules of harmony. At the program’s center is Benjamin Britten’s third and last quartet, a deathbed farewell in which the composer echoes the themes of his gripping opera Death in Venice. The program closes with Mendelssohn’s anguished Quartet in F Minor, op. 80, his last major work, written following the sudden death of his beloved sister, Fanny.

Please note: Due to illness, pianist Benjamin Hochman is unable to join the Elias String Quartet on this program as previously scheduled.

Program

Mozart: String Quartet No. 19 in C Major, K. 465 (“Dissonance”)
Britten: String Quartet No. 3, op. 94
Mendelssohn: String Quartet in F Minor, op. 80