Brentano Quartet

Yale University’s current quartet in residence, the Brentano Quartet, brings to PCMS a program highlighting the “fugue” and in particular it is the philosophical bent of fugal part writing which lends its compelling rhetoric to this concert. In Beethoven’s late C-sharp Minor masterpiece (Op. 131) he tosses convention aside by casting this work in seven continuous sections rather than the traditional four. In a similar vein Shostakovich’s final completed quartet (Op. 144) is a somber, six-movement work known for its profound melancholy and lack of pauses, creating a single, brooding dramatic arc.