BRENTANO STRING QUARTET
REPERTOIRE
2023-24 season 

Master List of Pieces offered: (use to request your preferred program)
Bartok: Quartet No. 5
Beethoven: Quartet in Bb-Major, Op. 130 (with alternate finale)
Dvorak: Quartet in Ab-Major, Op. 105
Haydn: Quartet in C-Major, Op. 33, No. 3 (“The Bird”)
James MacMillan: “Memento” and “For Sonny”
Mendelssohn Quartet in D-Major, Op. 44, No. 1
Mozart: Quartet in D-Major, KV 499
Shostakovich Quartet No. 8 in C-minor, Op. 110 (available after Jan 1, 2024)

Special program offerings
Program 1: “The Musical World of Bartok’s Quartet No. 5”
The Fifth Quartet of Bela Bartok, a compelling and magnificent work, has a number of special characteristic preoccupations which give it a distinct and riveting personality. This program serves as a focus on that great work by creating a context for several of those preoccupations through the music of Bach, Beethoven, Haydn, Purcell, Berio,
and Bartok himself. These short (2-5 min) selections, performed as the concert’s first half, will help illustrate music canons (“Chases and Reflections”), ethnic idioms (“Hungarian and Bulgarian Rhythms”), and obsession (“Fixation on a Single Note”). Following this immersive investigation (and intermission for reflection!), Bartok’s Quartet No.5 stands poised to be heard in a new space, with clarity and immediacy.

First Half: short works by Bartók, Bach, Purcell, Haydn, Berio, and Beethoven illustrating
various characteristics embedded in the single work on the program’s

Second Half: Béla Bartók: Quartet No. 5

​

Collaborations:
“Trout Quintet” with pianist Jonathan Biss and double-bassist Joseph Conyers:
(May, 2024)
Beethoven: Quartet in Bb-Major, Op. 130 (with alternate finale)
Schubert: Quintet for piano and strings in A-Major, D. 667 (“Trout”)

String Quintet program with violist Hsin-Yun Huang:
Haydn: Quartet in C-Major, Op. 33 No. 3 (“The Bird”)
James MacMillan: new Viola Quintet (composed in 2021 for Brentano Quartet)
Brahms: Quintet for Strings in G Major, Op. 111

​

May, 2023