American Classical Orchestra Brings High Octane Octet to Carnegie's Weill Hall
The performance is on Friday, March 28, at 7:30 pm.
By: Stephi Wild Mar. 05, 2025
American Classical Orchestra (ACO) Founder and Director Thomas Crawford will present a chamber music concert demonstrating the uniquely authentic sounds of a period instrument string ensemble in the perfectly suited acoustics of Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall on Friday, March 28, at 7:30 pm.
The performance is the third of three chamber music concerts included in the Orchestra's 40th anniversary season. The program begins with Dvořák's rarely performed Miniatures for two solo violins and a viola. It is followed by Mendelssohn's lively Octet in E-flat Major, which the composer wrote as a teenager, creating one of the most spirited finales in Classical music.
The ACO's next concert will offer Magnificently Mozart, a program comprising works by Beethoven and Mozart on Wednesday, May 7, at Alice Tully Hall.
Chamber Music: High Octane Octet
Friday, March 28, 2025, 7:30 pm, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall
American Classical Orchestra
Thomas Crawford, conductor
Krista Bennion Feeney, Karl Kawahara, Theresa Salomon, Edson Scheid, violins
David Cerutti, Annie Garlid, violas
Myron Lutzke, Serafim Smigelskiy, cellos
Antonin Dvořák: Miniatures, Op. 75a, B.149
Felix Mendelssohn: Octet in E-flat Major, Op. 20
Mendelssohn wrote his Octet at the age of 16 and dedicated it to his dear friend and teacher, violinist Eduard Rietz, for his 23rd birthday. Scored for four violins, two violas, and two cellos, the work is essentially a double string-quartet that blurs the lines between chamber music and symphonic compositional techniques. It was re-scored for full string orchestra by conductor Arturo Toscanini in 1947. Dvořák composed his Miniatures for two violins and viola in 1887. He shared with his publisher the joy he had while writing the short pieces and promptly reworked them as the beloved four Romantic Pieces for violin and piano.
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