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Osvoldo Golijov: Tenebrae

Dmitri Shostakovich: Quartet No. 7

Franz Schubert: Quartet in G Major, D887

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. The Axelrod Quartet, which now includes violinist Mark Fewer, presents three programs, each of which is anchored by one of Schubert’s last quartets. Works of quartet masters Haydn, Beethoven, and Shostakovich are joined by three 20th-century works related, in their diversity, to varied interests of the National Museum of American History.  The music of the Argentinian Osvaldo Golijov, resident in the United States since 1986, has been characterized as “forcing us to look and listen in a way that we're not asked to do inside other music, speaking to the divisiveness and coming together of cultures."