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The 35th season of the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society explores musical masterpieces from the 17th to the 20th century, performed on some of the world’s most highly prized musical instruments. Two series and a seminar, featuring SCMS’s acclaimed artists, offer musical feasts simply unobtainable anywhere but at the Smithsonian. Concerts will be presented in three acoustically appropriate venues: the intimate Hall of Musical Instruments in the National Museum of American History, the evocative Commons in the Smithsonian Castle building, and the opulent Grand Salon of the American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery.

As an added bonus, one hour prior to each program in the Axelrod Quartet and Masterworks series, SCMS artistic director Kenneth Slowik continues his popular pre-concert lectures, shedding light on the glorious music and the life and times of the featured composers.

For tickets and subscription information, visit: ResidentAssociates.org/Chamber (no handling fee), or call 202-633-3030 ($3 nonrefundable handling fee per phone order)

The Axelrod Quartet Series

The Axelrod String Quartet
Marc Destrubé, violin
Marilyn McDonald, violin
James Dunham, viola
Kenneth Slowik, violoncello

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. For their programs this season, the Axelrod Quartet members have chose to present Haydn’s three Op. 74 quartets, plus three quartets of Beethoven, anchoring their repertoire in the works of the two greatest quartet composers. Each program also contains a Romantic-period work, including, in January, Mendelssohn’s splendid Octet, which will unite all eight Stradivarius and Amati instruments for a rare sonic experience. The Axelrod members will be joined by the Old City String Quartet, Grand Prize and String Division Gold Medal Winners of the 2010 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, and recently named the graduate resident quartet at Rice Univerity’s Shepherd School of Music.  Come experience why Beethoven’s contemporary Johann Wolfgang von Goethe described listening to string quartets as equivalent to “eavesdropping on a conversation among four intelligent people.” You are certain to find the dialogue fascinating.

Saturday, October 29, 2011 at 8:00 pm
Sunday, October 30, 2011 at 7:30 pm
Hall of Musical Instruments, American History
Lecture one hour before each program

Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 8:00 pm
Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 7:30 pm
Hall of Musical Instruments, American History
Lecture one hour before each program

Saturday, May 5, 2012 at 8:00 pm
Sunday, May 6, 2012 at 7:30 pm
Smithsonian Castle Commons
Lecture one hour before each program

See the individual listings in the Concert Schedule for complete program information for the Axelrod Quartet Series.

The Masterworks Series

The Smithsonian Chamber Players

Vera Beths, violin
Marc Destrubé, violin
Mark Fewer, violin
Marilyn McDonald, violin
Anca Nicolau, violin & viola
Ian Swensen, violin
Douglas McNabney, viola  
Paolo Pandolfo, viola da gamba
Loretta O'Sullivan, violoncello     
Myron Lutzke, violoncello  
Mitzi Meyerson, harpsichord 
Lambert Orkis, piano
William Sharp, baritone
Kenneth Slowik, violoncello & keyboard

THE SMITHSONIAN CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY celebrates its 35th season with an appropriately eclectic repast, balancing familiar masterworks with undeservedly neglected oeuvres perdues. The season opens with SCMS artistic director Kenneth Slowik presenting Bach’s compendious Goldberg Variations, BWV 988. A second baroque concert follows in mid-October, when Mitzi Meyerson, Professor of Harpsichord at the Berlin Universität der Künste (the very first university to offer the study of the harpsichord, a position created especially for Wanda Landowska), partners Slowik in a sparkling selection of harpsichord solos and duos. In November, Castle Trio members Lambert Orkis and Marilyn McDonald are joined by Dutch violinist Vera Beths and Canadian violist Douglas McNabney to celebrate the release of a new Friends of Music recording containing performances of Robert Schumann’s exuberant Piano Quartet and Piano Quintet. Axelrod Quartet primarius Marc Destrubé and Italian viola da gamba player Paolo Pandolfi join Slowik in early February for Rameau’s Pièces de clavecin en concerts, and Ian Swensen returns, with cellist Loretta O’Sullivan, for a program of Classical-era sonatas and trios in early March. The distinguished American baritone William Sharp traverses two of Schumann’s great lyrical song cycles later that month. The season concludes in April with the versatile Mark Fewer leading a program that includes 17^th-century  solo sonatas and two sonically distinctive late-19^th-century chamber masterpieces, Dvorák’s Bagatelles (in their original scoring with harmonium), and Arensky’s Second String Quartet (in its original version with one violin, one viola, and two celli).

Sunday 16 October 2011 at 7:30 pm
The Smithsonian Chamber Players
Hall of Musical Instruments, American History
Lecture one hour before the concert

Sunday 20 November 2011 at 7:30 pm
The Smithsonian Chamber Players
Hall of Musical Instruments, American History
Lecture one hour before the concert

Sunday 8 January 2012 at 7:30 pm
Kenneth Slowik
Hall of Musical Instruments, American History
Lecture one hour before the concert

Sunday 5 February 2012 at 7:30 pm
The Smithsonian Chamber Players
Hall of Musical Instruments, American History
Lecture one hour before the concert

Sunday 4 March 2012 at 7:30 pm
The Smithsonian Chamber Players
Hall of Musical Instruments, American History
Lecture one hour before the concert

Sunday 18 March 2012 at 7:30 pm
The Smithsonian Chamber Players
Hall of Musical Instruments, American History
Lecture one hour before the concert

Sunday 22 April 2012 at 7:30 pm
The Smithsonian Chamber Players
Hall of Musical Instruments, American History
Lecture one hour before the concert

See the individual listings in the Concert Schedule for complete program information for the Masterworks Series. Some of these concerts may also be heard in Washington, Virginia, at The Theatre at Little Washington. To check the schedule, visit www.theatre-washington-va.com

Bach Seminar: The St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244

Saturday, February 25, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

In this seminar, Kenneth Slowik examines what many consider to be Bach’s greatest masterpiece, as the Friends of Music record label prepares to release anew recording of the work by the Smithsonian Chamber Players, under Slowik’s direction. The seminar includes the background of German Passion settings before Bach; Bach and the chorale tradition; Bach as interpreter of the Gospel of Matthew; the history of Bach’s own performances of the work; and its revival in 1829 by Mendelssohn. Slowik takes a close look at the structure and music, illustrated with many examples from his new recording.    

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