With modernization and change accelerating in the Western world at the end of the 19th century, evolving musical styles and ideas raced to anticipate innovations of the 20th century, saying “Goodbye” to some traditions, and “Hello” to the future.  Arnold Schoenberg’s rarely heard Quartet in D Major from 1897 offers a rare glimpse into the mind of a 23-year old genius on the precipice of an entirely new view what music can sound like.  To follow, we celebrate the 30th anniversary of Joan Tower’s riveting quartet “Nightfields”, one of the greatest works for string quartet of late 20th century.  With her uniquely visceral sound, Joan Tower’s music glows with shifting color and movement, sparking the imagination, and challenging the possibilities of quartet playing.

To wrap up the evening, the ASQ is delighted to introduce the phenomenal clarinetist Oskar Espina-Ruiz to St. Louis for a performance of Johannes Brahms’ astounding Clarinet Quintet, Op.115, a crowning achievement by one of the greatest innovators of the 19th century.