ChamberFest Cleveland: Songs, Signs, and Souvenirs

Chausson’s last completed work, Chanson perpétuelle, enchants with heartbreaking beauty, then a set of playful, thought-provoking miniatures captures the spontaneous spirit of experimentation. Did you know that Beethoven wrote more settings of folk songs than any other type of composition? His Scottish Songs are ingenious arrangements, strikingly beautiful, that straddle a rustic tone and Classical aesthetic. Originally conceived as a string quintet, Brahms reworked his Op. 34 into a sonata for two pianos before its final metamorphosis into this Piano Quintet. Now one of his best beloved works, it is uniquely Brahmsian in its broad conception of melody, rhythmic vitality, endless invention, as its exhilarating momentum builds towards a breathtakingly grand finale.

Ernest Chausson
Chanson perpétuelle
György Kurtág
Selections from Signs, Games and Messages
Ludwig van Beethoven
Selections from Scottish Songs
Johannes Brahms
Piano Quintet in F minor