Concert Program III

The Thrill of the Hunt

Visual artists captured the exhilaration, drama, and deadliness of the hunt, and composers were similarly inspired, replicating the sonics and spirit of the chase through music. Indeed, Joseph Haydn’s very first quartet is subtitled La chasse, which opens with the iconic sound of hunting horns. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s quartet bears the same nickname, for good reason. A century later, Johannes Brahms alluded to the hunt in his final quartet, and in Jörg Widmann’s delightfully macabre Hunting Quartet, the cellist, playing the role of the animal, is pursued by her colleagues and issues a blood-curdling scream of death near the conclusion.

This concert is preceded by a free afternoon Prelude Performance at 5 p.m. by the 2022 International Program artists. Prelude programs will be announced in May.