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Brentano String Quartet

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PRESS ACCLAIM

"The American ensemble, by now well established in the international pantheon, offers performances both fiercely intelligent and expressively pristine."

-New Yorker

“[A] remarkable capacity for magical ensemble playing…effervescent."

-The Washington Post

“Exhilarating...this intensely physical quartet is defined by passion....... The Brentano produced a luxuriously warm sound, yearning lyricism and a palpable frisson of excitement....... Their gorgeous sound seemed to float and hover blissfully above the stage...... The Brentano gave a gripping performance.”

-New York Times

“Balance and intonation reach an almost unearthly level of perfection, yet there's nothing inhuman about these American musicians. And their intimate embrace is marvelous: it's as though each player is inhabiting each others' skin…a splendid quartet.”

-The Times (London)

REPERTOIRE

2026 - 2027 PROGRAMS

MASTER LIST OF PIECES OFFERED

(*=available after Feb 1, 2027)

Bach: Fugue in C#-minor, BWV 849 (arranged for quartet)
Beethoven: Quartet in F-Major, Op. 18, No. 1
Beethoven: Quartet in G-Major, Op. 18, No. 2
* Beethoven: Quartet in Bb-Major, Op. 18, No. 6
Beethoven: Quartet in F-Major, Op. 59, No. 1
Beethoven: Quartet in E-minor, Op. 59, No. 2
Beethoven: Quartet in C-Major, Op. 59, No. 3
* Beethoven: Quartet in Eb-Major, Op. 74
* Beethoven: Quartet in Bb-Major, Op. 130 (with alternate finale)
Beethoven: Quartet in C#-minor, Op. 131

Haydn: Quartet in F-Major, Op. 50 No. 5 “The Dream”Haydn: Quartet in D-Major, Op. 64, No 5 “The Lark”Haydn: Quartet C-Major, Op. 74, No. 1Haydn: Quartet in D-minor, Op. 103Mozart: Quartet in D-minor, K 421
Shostakovich: Fugue in Eb- minor, Op. 87 No. 14 (arranged for quartet)
Shostakovich: Quartet No. 15 in E-b minor, Op. 144
Peteris Vasks: Meditation from Quartet No. 4 (2000)

 

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ALL BEETHOVEN PROGRAMS

Program 1)  Op. 18/1; 59/3; 131


Program 2). Op 59/1; 18/2; 59/2
 

Program 3)  avail. starting Feb 1, 2027:  Op. 74; Op. 18/6; Op. 130 (with alternate finale)

PROGRAMS "AROUND BEETHOVEN"

4) Flights of Fugue

 

The philosophical bent of fugal part writing lends its compelling rhetoric to this program.

 

Shostakovich: Fugue in Eb- minor, Op. 87 No. 14 (arranged for quartet)

Shostakovich:  Quartet No. 15 in E-b minor, Op. 144

Bach:  Fugue in C#-minor, BWV 849 (arranged for quartet)

Beethoven:  Quartet in C#-minor, Op. 131   

 

5) Tragic Scenes and Operatic Arias

 

Works rooted in classical tragic drama and lamentation: early period Beethoven with a movement depicting the tomb scene from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, a Mozart quartet with a first movement analyzed by a contemporary of his that frames the opening movement as an aria Dido sings upon her abandonment by Aeneas, and a middle period Beethoven quartet with a slow movement over which the composer wrote “a weeping willow or acacia tree on my brother’s grave.”

 

Beethoven:  Quartet in F-Major, Op. 18, No. 1

Mozart:  Quartet in D-minor, K 421

Beethoven:  Quartet in F-Major, Op. 59, No. 1

 

6) Dreams, Meditations, and Contemplations

 

Works in which meditative and dream-like states of the mind are evoked: Haydn dreaming, Vasks meditating on the 20th century, Beethoven gazing (in the slow movement) at the starry firmament in wonder.

 

Haydn:  Quartet in F-Major, Op. 50 No. 5 “The Dream”

Peteris Vasks:  Meditation from Quartet No. 4 (2000)

Beethoven:  Quartet in E-minor, Op. 59, No. 2

April 2025

BIOGRAPHY

Mark Steinberg, violin
Serena Canin, violin
Misha Amory, viola
Nina Lee, cello

With a career spanning over three decades, the Brentano Quartet has appeared throughout the world to popular and critical acclaim. The New York Times extols its “luxuriously warm sound [and] yearning lyricism; and the Times (London) hails their “wonderful, selfless music-making.” Known for its unique sensibility, probing interpretive style, and original programming, the Quartet has performed across five continents in the world’s most prestigious venues and festivals, thus establishing itself as one of the world’s preeminent ensembles.

 

Dedicated and highly sought after as educators, the Quartet has served as Artists-in-Residence at the Yale School of Music for the past decade.  They also lead the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival and appear regularly at the Taos School of Music.  Previously, the Quartet served for fifteen years as Ensemble-in-Residence at Princeton University.

 

In the 2025-26 concert season, the Quartet will tour throughout North America, including concerts in New York, Boston, Chicago, Vancouver, Detroit, San Francisco, and Denver. They will perform the complete Mozart Quintets with violist Hsin-Yun Huang in Philadelphia. Further afield, they will tour Spain in November 2025 and elsewhere in Europe in March 2026.

 

Formed in 1992, The Brentano Quartet has received numerous accolades, including, in 1995, the prestigious Naumburg and Cleveland Quartet Awards. They have been privileged to collaborate with such artists as sopranos Jessye Norman and Dawn Upshaw; mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato; as well as pianists Mitsuko Uchida and Jonathan Biss.  The Quartet has commissioned works from some of the most important composers of our time, including Bruce Adolphe, Matthew Aucoin, Gabriela Frank, Stephen Hartke, Vijay Iyer, Steven Mackey, Charles Wuorinen, Lei Liang, James MacMillan, and Melinda Wagner.

 

Notable recordings include Beethoven’s Quartet, Op. 131 (Aeon) which was featured in the 2012 film “A Late Quartet,” starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Christopher Walken, and a 2017 live album with Joyce DiDonato, “Into the Fire—Live from Wigmore Hall” (Warner) Their most recent release features the K. 428 and K. 465 (“Dissonance”) Quartets of Mozart for the Azica label.

 

The Quartet is named for Antonie Brentano, whom many scholars consider to be Beethoven’s “Immortal Beloved,”  the intended recipient of his famous love confession.

 

Updated June 2025. Please discard previous or undated versions.

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