LARK Quartet Performs Schulhoff with Princeton Symphony Orchestra

On Sunday, October 29 at 4 pm, the New York-based LARK Quartet, which counts Princeton Symphony Orchestra (PSO) concertmaster Basia Danilow among its members, joins the PSO to perform Erwin Schulhoff's Concerto for String Quartet and Winds, WV97 on a program with Ottorino Respighi's Gli uccelli and Felix Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 5 in D Major, Op. 107 "Reformation." Rossen Milanov conducts the afternoon concert at Richardson Auditorium on the campus of Princeton University.

For PSO patrons used to seeing Basia Danilow in the concertmaster chair, the concert will afford them the opportunity to see how she performs as part of a quartet. Ms. Danilow said, "I am so happy that two ensembles closest to my heart have this opportunity to join musical forces! The Schulhoff is an interesting piece, in a kind of concerto grosso style, with winds supplying the framework and the quartet intertwining as soloists. I look forward to performing it, and bringing Schulhoff to audience members who might not know his work."

Originally composed for a Prague radio performance in 1930, the Schulhoff Concerto for String Quartet infuses elements of a Baroque concerto with the color and rhythms of American jazz. Middle school students participating in the orchestra's PSO BRAVO! Listen Up! program will be attending the concert and listening to this work in anticipation of creating visual art, poetry, and prose in response.

The LARK Quartet continues to delight audiences with its energy, passionate commitment, and artistry since its inception in 1985. The LARK has performed in many of the world's great cultural centers including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Library of Congress, London's Wigmore Hall, and L'Opéra de la Bastille in Paris, and has appeared at international festivals including Lockenhaus, the Schleswig-Holstein, Mostly Mozart, Istanbul, Wolftrap, and the Beethoven Festival in Moscow. Promising to deliver "a performance of grace, proportion, and burnished brilliance" (The Washington Post), The Lark Quartet, made up of Deborah Buck, violin I; Basia Danilow, violin II; Kathryn Lockwood, viola; and Caroline Stinson, cello, offers audiences new insights into the art of chamber music.

Bookending the Schulhoff are Respighi's Gli uccelli (The Birds), a work depicting calls of a dove, a hen, a nightingale, and a cuckoo in its four Baroque-style movements, and Mendelssohn's Fifth Symphony. Mendelssohn's "Reformation" Symphony was commissioned for the three-hundredth anniversary of the Augsburg Confession, the formal document approved by Martin Luther. To honor Luther, Mendelssohn included in his finale the beloved hymn by Luther "Ein' feste Burg is unser Gott" ("A Mighty Fortress is Our God").

Tickets for the Princeton Symphony Orchestra MENDELSSOHN "Reformation" concert and other concerts are on sale starting at $35. Pricing includes admission to the 3 pm Pre-Concert Talk. Purchase at www.princetonsymphony.org or call (609) 497-0020.

In a Beat

Sunday, October 29, 2017 - 4 pm; Pre-Concert Talk - 3 pm; Richardson Auditorium

MENDELSSOHN "Reformation"

Rossen Milanov, conductor

LARK Quartet

Ottorino Respighi Gli uccelli

Erwin Schulhoff Concerto for String Quartet and Winds, WV97

Felix Mendelssohn Symphony No. 5 in D Major, Op. 107 "Reformation"

Tickets: $35 and up

Programs, artists, dates, and times are subject to change.

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