PROGRAM
 

Pyotr Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY
   String Quartet No. 1 in D major

Arnold SCHOENBERG
   Verklärte Nacht

Tchaikovsky’s String Quartet No. 1 and Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night) sextet fill this program with rich romanticism. Tchaikovsky’s quartet evokes ballet in its fast movements and its famous second movement is of the sweetest lyricism. Dense with chromaticism, Transfigured Night was written by the young Schoenberg before his embrace of atonality. It is romantic writing in the extreme, telling the story of lovers in the night, a dark confession, and a transformative forgiveness.