Brentano String Quartet
VIDEO
PRESS ACCLAIM
REPERTOIRE
2027-2028 PROGRAMS
MASTER LIST OF PIECES OFFERED
Bach: 3 Fugues from the Art of Fugue
Debussy: String Quartet, Op 10
Dvorak: Quartet in C-Major, Op. 61
Haydn: Quartet in Eb-Major, Op. 20 No.1
Mendelssohn: Quartet in Eb-Major, Op. 12
Schubert: Quartet in G-minor D173
Plus: all 16 Beethoven quartets (see below for suggested individual programs)
Program A) “NOT the Eroica's E-flat Major”
Haydn: Quartet in Eb-Major, Op. 20 No.1
Mendelssohn: Quartet in Eb-Major, Op. 12
Beethoven: Quartet in Eb-Major, Op. 127
Beethoven's Eroica Symphony marks the key of E-flat Major as one that is grand and, indeed, heroic. However, the key has another, warmer and gentler side. In his quartet, Op. 127, Beethoven begins as if to recall the Eroica, and then turns inward, away from that character, again and again. Likewise, Haydn and Mendelssohn exploit the key's more lyrical and gentle, embracing alter-ego.
ALL-BEETHOVEN PROGRAMS
(suggested combinations; others possible by request)
Program 1: 18/5, 18/2, 127 (bookended by early and late sets of variations)
Program 2: 18/1, 59/1, 135 (F Major quartets of all periods)
Program 3: 18/3, 95, 130 with alternate finale (the first and last quartets he composed)
Program 4: 74, 59/3, 132: (mysterious openings)
Program 5: 18/4, 59/2, 131 (dark and stormy drama)
Program 6: 18/6, 130 with Grosse Fuge Op. 133 (B-flat Major through the years)
Program B) “Metamorphoses”
Bach: 3 Fugues from the Art of Fugue
Debussy: String Quartet, Op 10
Beethoven: Quartet in C#-minor, Op. 131
In all three of these works, immediately recognizable musical motifs recur throughout, both generating and being transformed through the works they inhabit. The technique makes for works that dazzle with a potent amalgam of cohesion and variegation.
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Program C) “Influence of Eastern Europe”
Schubert: Quartet in G-minor D173
Beethoven: Quartet in C-minor, Op. 18 No. 4
Dvorak: Quartet in C-Major, Op. 61
The Romani influence, from eastern Europe, infiltrates both the Schubert and Beethoven works here, most especially in their somewhat wild finales. The Dvorak is deeply indebted to both Schubert and Beethoven (the opening practically a quote from Schubert's cello quintet), and is amongst the more "Viennese" of his works. Nonetheless, it can't conceal its folk-like, Slavonic heritage, and thus keeps the other two works company beautifully.
March 2026
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.