Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center: Returning to Mozart

• Orion String Quartet
• Cynthia Phelps, viola

Henry Purcell — Fantasia Upon One Note, Z. 745
Johann Sebastian Bach — The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080 ("Contrapunctus XIV")
Béla Bartók — String Quartet No. 6, Sz. 114, BB 119
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — String Quintet in D major, K. 593

Mozart’s transcendent, divinely inspired music is the choice of many for their final earthly listening experience. "Returning to Mozart" begins with poignant goodbyes: Purcell’s mesmerizing Fantasia leads to Bach’s last fugue, which inexplicably crumbles to silence. A lone viola, whose voice trailed off last in the Bach, begins Bartók’s final string quartet, an elegy both for the composer and for the impending world war. But after intermission, Mozart’s quintet breaks through the ceiling of human struggle, sending all home with music of pure joy and timeless optimism.

About Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS)

http://www.chambermusicsociety.org/

About Orion String Quartet

http://www.orionquartet.com/

About Cynthia Phelps, viola

https://nyphil.org/about-us/artists/cynthia-phelps