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The 36th season of the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society explores musical masterpieces from the 17th to the 20th century, performed on some of the world’s most highly prized musical instruments. Two series and a seminar, featuring SCMS’s acclaimed artists, offer musical feasts simply unobtainable anywhere but at the Smithsonian. When the Hall of Musical Instruments closes in October as part of a multi-year renovation project at the National Museum of American History, concerts will be presented in a variety of other Smithsonian venues, including the new Warner Bros. Theater at the National Museum of American History, the historic Commons in the Smithsonian Castle building, and the opulent Grand Salon of the American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery.

As an added bonus, one hour prior to each program in the Axelrod Quartet and Masterworks series, SCMS artistic director Kenneth Slowik continues his popular pre-concert lectures, shedding light on the glorious music and the life and times of the featured composers.

For tickets and subscription information, visit: ResidentAssociates.org/Chamber (no handling fee), or call 202-633-3030 ($3 nonrefundable handling fee per phone order)

The Axelrod Quartet Series

The Axelrod String Quartet
Marc Destrubé, violin
Marilyn McDonald, violin
James Dunham, viola
Kenneth Slowik, violoncello

SMITHSONIAN CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY audiences are privy to the unparalleled experience of being able to hear two magnificent quartets of instruments—one made by Antonio Stradivari, the other by his teacher Nicolò Amati—in this popular three-concert series. For their programs this season, the Axelrod Quartet members continue their Haydn survey, presenting the three quartets of Op. 71, the complements to the Op. 74 set heard last year. The December concert in the Warner Bros. Theater includes Samuel Barber's 1936 Quartet, which has at its centerpiece the famous Adagio. In January, the Quartet returns to the Renwick Gallery's Grand Salon where the Aeolus Quartet, graduate fellowship quartet at the University of Maryland's School of Music, will join the Axelrod members for a reading of the Mendelssohn Octet that will unite all eight Stradivari and Amati instruments. The April concert, again at American History, will focus on the three greatest Viennese Classical masters. Come experience why Beethoven’s contemporary Johann Wolfgang von Goethe described listening to string quartets as equivalent to “eavesdropping on a conversation among four intelligent people.” You are certain to find the dialogue fascinating.

Sunday, December 16, 2012 at 7:30 pm
Warner Bros. Theater, American History
Lecture one hour before the concert

Sunday, January 13, 2013 at 7:30 pm
Grand Salon, Renwick Gallery 
Lecture one hour before the concert

Sunday, April 28, 2013 at 7:30 pm
Warner Bros. Theater, American History
Lecture one hour before the concert

See the individual listings in the Concert Schedule for complete program information for the Axelrod Quartet Series.

The Masterworks Series

The Smithsonian Chamber Players

Vera Beths, violin
Pedja Muzijevic, piano
Steven Dann, viola
Ian Swensen, violin
Lambert Orkis, fortepiano  
Marilyn McDonald, violin
Elizabeth Adkins, violin
James Dunham, viola
Kenneth Slowik, violoncello, harpsichord, & fortepiano  
The Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra
 

THE SMITHSONIAN CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY celebrates its 36th season with an appropriately eclectic repast, balancing familiar masterworks with undeservedly neglected oeuvres perdues. The season opens with the return of Dutch violinist Vera Beths, violist Steven Dann, and pianist Pedja Muzijevic, for two charming French piano quartets, plus the second of Beethoven's Op. 9 trios. In November, Ian Swensen and Kenneth Slowik continue their series of duo presentations, this time with a focus on Bach. The Castle Trio, anchored by Lambert Orkis, returns in late January for a Schubertiade including the rarely-heard C Major Fantasy. The Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra performs music of Ravel, Copland, and Shostakovich in the Renwick Gallery's Grand Salon in March. Later that month, Mark Fewer and Myron Lutzke join Axelrod Quartet members Slowik and James Dunham for an evening of Mozart. The series concludes in May with a trio program bringing back Fewer and Dann, and including the two other members of Beethoven's Op. 9 set, plus intriguing works of Dohnányi and Purcell.  

Sunday 7 October 2012 at 7:30 pm
The Smithsonian Chamber Players
Hall of Musical Instruments, American History
Lecture one hour before the concert

Sunday 4 November 2012 at 7:30 pm
The Smithsonian Chamber Players
Smithsonian Castle Commonsy
Lecture one hour before the concert

Sunday 27 January 2013 at 7:30 pm
The Castle Trio
Warner Bros. Theater, American History
Lecture one hour before the concert

Sunday 3 March 2013 at 7:30 pm
The Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra
Grand Salon, Renwick Gallery
Lecture one hour before the concert

Sunday 24 March 2013 at 7:30 pm
The Smithsonian Chamber Players
Smithsonian Castle Commons
Lecture one hour before the concert

Sunday 5 May 2013 at 7:30 pm
The Smithsonian Chamber Players
Location t.b.a.
Lecture one hour before the concert

See the individual listings in the Concert Schedule for complete program information for the Masterworks Series. Some of these concerts may also be heard in Washington, Virginia, at The Theatre at Little Washington. To check the schedule, visit www.theatre-washington-va.com

Bach Seminar: The B Minor Mass, BWV 232

Saturday, April 6, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Scholar and performer Kenneth Slowik examines Johann Sebastian Bach’s towering setting of the Mass, assembled in the last years of the composer's life as a stunning summation of his art. Seminar attendees may purchase specially priced tickets to the Washington Bach Consort's April 28 presentation of the B Minor Mass.

The seminar includes a brief history of Mass settings before Bach, consideration of the Roman Mass and Lutheran Missa traditions, discussion of parody as a legitimate musical practice, and a survey of the work's performance history (including its reception). There will also be a retrospective look at the still-controversial one-on-a-part performance style first associated with the early 1980s recording of BWV 232 by Joshua Rifkin's Bach Ensemble (of which Slowik was part). It was derided by some as the "B Minor Madrigal," but it opened the door to a completely new appreciation of the work. Slowik takes a close look at the structure and music of the B Minor Mass in a discussion amply illustrated wih examples from a variety of historical and contemporary recordings.

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