Additional Emerson String Quartet performances are on:
The 2017–18 season marks the Emerson String Quartet’s 38th year in residence at the Smithsonian. The Grammy Award-winning ensemble (violinists Eugene Drucker and Philip Setzer, violist Lawrence Dutton, and cellist Paul Watkins) offers a repertoire that includes masterworks by Purcell, Beethoven, Britten, and Shostakovich, as well as a solo recital featuring Watkins.
CONCERT REPERTOIRE
Shostakovich and the Black Monk: A Russian Fantasy
The music of Dmitri Shostakovich has long held an important place in the ensemble’s repertoire. Sparked by the composer’s long—and unfulfilled—dream of turning Chekhov's mystical tale The Black Monk into an opera, quartet member Philip Setzer and noted theatre director James Glossman have created Shostakovich and the Black Monk: A Russian Fantasy. A unique intersection of chamber music and theatre, the work, which premiered this summer at Tanglewood, tells the story of this creative obsession from Shostakovich’s own perspective.
In tandem with actors including David Strathairn (Oscar-nominated for Good Night and Good Luck) and Sean Astin (star of the Lord of the Rings trilogy), the Emerson String Quartet uses Shostakovich’s music to bring to life the composer’s tortured professional and personal struggle to fulfil his inspiration, played out against the perilous backdrop of Stalinist Russia.
Individual concerts on sale only; no subscription available.
For more information about Emerson String Quartet, click here.
All programs subject to change.
