PRINCETON UNIVERSITY CONCERTS BEGINS PERFORMANCES UP CLOSE SERIES; Schubert’s String Quintet Performed by the Takács Quartet & cellist David Requiro

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY CONCERTS BEGINS

PERFORMANCES UP CLOSE SERIES

Schubert’s String Quintet Performed by the Takács Quartet & cellist David Requiro

Princeton University Concerts has been committed to changing how audiences experience classical music concerts. Its Performances Up Close series, created three years ago in anticipation of the 2018-19 125th anniversary season, has been at the forefront of this mission. On Wednesday, October 17, 2018 at 6PM and 9PM, the first of this three-concert series invites audience members to sit on stage at Richardson Auditorium, “up-close” with the Takács Quartet and cellist David Requiro to experience an hour-long, single-work program featuring one of music’s most transcendent pieces – Franz Schubert’s Cello Quintet in C Major, D. 956, the last chamber work that the composer ever wrote. By offering this remarkable piece of music a chance to breathe and stand on its own, this forward-thinking series goes straight to the spiritual and communal core of chamber music. Every detail of this concert, from stage lighting to seating configuration, is specially curated to foster as direct an experience of the musical work as possible, including readings by Broadway actor and director Michael Dean Morgan and concert design by Michael Dean Morgan and Wesley Cornwell.

Tickets for both performances are already sold out. Any returned tickets will be released for purchase an hour prior to each performance at Richardson Auditorium, Alexander Hall.

Completed just two months before its composer’s death, Schubert’s Cello Quintet is held as one of the high points of the chamber music repertoire. The composer’s final chamber work and only full string quintet, the instrumentation of the work is unusual—using two cellos instead of the standard two violas. The rich sounds that this creates in the lower registers contributes significantly to the pathos for which the work is known, a quality which David Requiro—first prize winner of the 2008 Naumburg International Violoncello Competition and member of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center—is sure to draw out alongside the Takács String Quartet. Beloved to the Princeton community, the quartet will be making their 20^th appearance on PUC’s series this season, with their recently-announced new second violinist Harumi Rhodes. They will return to PUC’s stage on Thursday, April 4, 2019 at 8PM with pianist Marc-André Hamelin and bassist John Feeney.

Other highlights of PUC’s upcoming celebratory season include the residency of legendary conductor Gustavo Dudamel, the current Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic; a special event featuring opera star Joyce DiDonato in a jazz-infused program; a number of highly anticipated debuts, including violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja, clarinetist Martin Fröst, and Gramophone Hall of Fame cellist Steven Isserlis; a brand new series, Crossroads, telling stories from all across the world through artists ranging from mandolin virtuoso Avi Avital with bassist Omer Avital to banjo royalty Abigail Washburn with the Chinese guzheng rockstar Wu Fei; Beyond the Music offerings, from live music meditations to program illuminating talks, free to the public; and much more. There are two more concerts in the Up Close Series, both focusing on a single iconic piece of chamber music. For more information, please visit princetonuniversityconcerts.org.