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Florence Price: String Quartet in G Major

Ludwig van Beethoven: Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 74, the Harp

Franz Schubert: Quartet in A Minor, D804, Rosamunde

 

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. Much of the music of African-American composer Florence Price was rediscovered only in 2009. Her Quartet in G Major, a work from 1929, recalls the harmonic language of Antonín Dvořák, who prophesized: "In the Negro melodies of America I discover all that is needed for a great and noble school of music.