Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra: Schumann, Montgomery, Haydn

Start: Sunday, March 30, 2025 3:00PM
End: Sunday, March 30, 2025 5:00PM

Join us for a lush program of chamber music for piano and strings!

St. Christopher's Episcopal Church

625 Main St, Chatham, MA 02633

General Admission $35 - Children and Students FREE

Program:

Haydn: String Quartet No. 1, Op. 74

Montgomery: Break Away (2013)

Schumann: Piano Quintet in E-Flat, Op. 44

Emma Powell, Hannah O'Brien, violins

Sam Kelder, viola

Tim Paek, cello

Ana Glig, piano

Robert Schumann met Clara Wieck when he was 18 and she was nine. Twelve years later, they married, profoundly influencing his life and Romantic music. Their relationship inspired many of Schumann's works, including the Piano Quintet in E-flat, written for Clara to perform.

Unlike his meticulous friends Mendelssohn, Chopin, and Brahms, Schumann composed in intense bursts of inspiration. The year 1842 was his "year of chamber music," during which he immersed himself in studying Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven's quartets. By July 22, he had completed three Opus 41 quartets. The Piano Quintet, Op. 44, was sketched in just five days and completed by October 12, while the Piano Quartet, Op. 47, was written shortly after.

Schumann was the first significant German composer to write for the piano quintet, a combination previously explored mainly by Luigi Boccherini and later by Brahms, Dvorák, and César Franck. The Piano Quintet blends elements of both concerto and chamber music, possibly inspired by Mozart's arrangements of his piano concertos with string quartet accompaniment. Mendelssohn played the piano part at a private concert on December 6, 1842, and the first public performance, featuring Clara Schumann, took place at the Leipzig Gewandhaus on January 8, 1843.

Price: General Admission: USD 35.00