Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival 2026
This year’s Festival is generously sponsored by
The Paul M. Angell Family Foundation
Norman and Ellen Plummer
Chesapeake Music is grateful for their support.
All program selections are subject to change.
Musical Memories
Program Notes for June 12, 2026
Franz Schubert
String Quartet No. 8 in B-flat Major, D. 112
Composed in 1814 at the age of 17 and completed in just six days, Schubert’s B-flat major string quartet is often considered his first mature work, one that begins to anticipate his many masterworks to come. Noteworthy is the unabashed lyricism of the themes, a future Schubertian hallmark. As was true of much of his early music, this quartet was written with skilled amateurs in mind, in this case specifically his family’s string quartet (his brothers on violins, himself on viola, and his father on cello).
The first violin opens the Allegro movement with a quirky, meandering theme in a major key that is quickly taken up by the viola and then migrated to all four instruments before curiously petering out. There then follows a somber minor theme given to the first violin and cello and played against triplets from the other strings. The movement concludes with a relaxed development of the two themes, alternating major with minor. The Andante second movement is again in a minor key and alternates between a shrouded theme and one marked dolce and given to the first violin. The third movement opens with a folk dance-like Menuetto before changing to a courtly Trio section that is given to the violins and played against the viola and cello’s delicate pizzicato backdrop. The spirited and highly entertaining Presto final movement concludes this youthful work.
Kate Soper
Only the Words Themselves Mean What They Say
American composer Kate Soper scored her 2011 duet, Only the Words Themselves Mean What They Say, for soprano and flute, setting to music three texts by Lydia Davis. The “unhinged virtuosic” score (as some have described it) requires the flutist to switch among three instruments – the piccolo, C flute, and bass flute, and the soprano to speak, sing, and vocalize – a test, as Soper has written, of the absolute limits of the singer’s physical and expressive capabilities. The flute and voice must synchronize with absolute precision.
The first duo, “Go Away,” is set to Davis’ prose piece which recounts a man yelling “Go away and don’t come back” at someone he knows. In exploring the anger, hurt, and meaning of the insult, the piece deals with the relationship between language and the emotions it causes. The flutist reinforces the sense of psychological vulnerability with nervous, breathy notes. In the second duo, “Head, Heart,” the short poem mines the entangled duality of reason and emotion. The rational “Head” unconvincingly attempts to comfort the emotional “Heart” after a profound loss, coldly explaining “you will lose the ones you love.” The final duo, “Getting to Know Your Body,” explores the paradox of “mind over matter” – the brain’s seeming inability to control the body. The music mimics the frantic, twitchy energy of both a brain and an eyeball that cannot stop functioning involuntarily.
Antonín Dvořák
Piano Quintet No. 2 in A Major, Op. 81
Dvořák wrote his highly Romantic second piano quintet in 1887. Considered a masterwork of the piano quintet genre, the Quintet is notable for Dvořák’s use of Slavic folk music – not actual folk tunes but Dvořák’s original melodies composed in a folk-music style.
The opening Allegro movement begins with a soulful, lyrical theme given to the cello over piano accompaniment that is eventually taken up by the first violin. After a series of elaborate transformations of this theme, the viola introduces a second theme, and both are elaborately restated and developed before the movement comes to a high-spirited close. The Andante second movement is a dumka – a Slavic musical genre that contrasts themes of melancholy and exuberance. Although the piano introduces the wistful main theme, the movement’s true statement of profound grief, characteristic of the dumka, is given to the viola. This music alternates in rondo form with faster, happier passages before the movement eventually comes to a subdued close. The playful third-movement Scherzo is in the form of a furiant – a rapid and fiery Bohemian folk dance – with a gentler Trio middle section. The sparkling Allegro finale begins in high spirits and introduces two themes, one vivacious and the other more lyrical. The first theme is used in a fugue-like development as well as in a tranquil chorale-like passage before the movement closes with gusto.
Program Notes for June 13, 2026
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Violin Sonata in E Minor, K. 304
Mozart composed his E-minor violin sonata in 1778 at the age of 22. Like several other of his sonatas, it has only two movements. It also is his only violin sonata composed in a minor key, which gives it an unusual weightiness and profundity. Possibly, this was due to the death of his mother around the time Mozart was working on the piece. Or it may stem from Mozart’s move to Paris and his separation from a first young love, the soprano Aloysia Weber. The work is notable for giving prominence to the violin when, at the time, the piano more typically dominated. Altogether, this sonata is universally regarded as one of Mozart’s finest chamber music works.
The first movement Allegro’s somber opening theme is dramatically announced by the violin and piano playing in unison and then is taken up by the violin. A second, somewhat livelier theme is given to the piano, but the first theme dominates the movement until its close. Although labeled a minuet, the outer sections of the second movement remain mostly melancholic. The opening theme is first given to the solo piano and then is varied by both instruments. Before the movement concludes “grief-stricken” in the minor key, there is a beautiful middle section marked dolce in a major key, which Albert Einstein described as “a brief glimpse of bliss.”
Heitor Villa-Lobos
Assobio a Játo (“The Jet Whistle”)
Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos was deeply interested in his country’s history and its music. In his youth, he played the guitar, viola and cello in street bands, cafés and theater and cinema orchestras, immersing himself in the popular music of his day. In 1905, he began a decade-long exploration of the Amazon to encounter the folk music traditions of its villages, before heading to Paris for a lengthy immersion in Parisian modern music. He combined these diverse influences into his compositions, including the 1950 Assobio a Játo (“The Jet Whistle”), written during a stay in New York City.
In the opening Allegro movement, Brazilian folk waltz themes dominate, with the flute and the cello alternating the roles of carrying the theme and accompanying. The lyrical but moody Adagio second movement has an aura of heaviness and melancholy, enlivened by a more active middle section. However, it is the fast-paced final movement that explains the composition’s title. At the end of the movement, the flutist mimics the sound of a jet airplane accelerating by blowing forcefully into the flute while rapidly scaling the keys to create a breathy glissando similar to the “whistle” sounds of jets taking off. This is accentuated, as is true throughout the piece, by the striking difference in the two instruments: high and low pitches, metallic and wooden resonance, breathy and vibrato timbres.
Dmitri Shostakovich
Seven Romances on Poems of Alexander Blok, Op. 127
In 1967, Dmitri Shostakovich’s close friends, the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and his opera singer wife Galina Vishnevskaya asked him to write songs that they could perform together. The result was Seven Romances on Poems of Alexander Blok. In composing this cycle, Shostakovich added piano and violin parts in various combinations with the voice, although not all instruments are employed together until the final song. Shostakovich also handpicked the seven Alexander Blok poems of the cycle. Written around 1900, these symbolist poems explore universal themes such as love, death, and nature, albeit often colored by a sense of foreboding. Shostakovich’s music is correspondingly often somber but also reflective and deeply personal. Indeed, Shostakovich’s friend Isaak Glikman wrote: “the Blok cycle reveals the anguish of Shostakovich’s soul with unique clarity and poignancy.”
In Shostakovich’s settings of the poems, the vocal line is relatively simple with the instruments providing the melodic interest. In “Gamayun, the Prophetic Bird,” for example, the piano plays stark, foreboding scales that elucidate the bird’s dire prophecy of “bloody executions, earthquakes, famines and conflagration.” Similarly, in “Storm,” the violin and piano create the frenetic energy of a fearsome deluge but abate when the poem reflects on the plight of the homeless in the midst of the “terrifying night.” With other poems, the musical setting is purposely spare, even austere, creating a sense of intimacy.
Robert Schumann
Piano Trio No. 2 in F Major, Op. 80
Robert Schumann began his second piano trio in 1847. It is a highly melodic and cheerful work filled with allusions to his love for his wife Clara, whom he married in 1840. The first movement, for example, quotes the phrase “In the depths of my heart I keep a radiant image of you” from his song “Dein Bildnis wunderselig,” which he wrote for Clara just before their long-delayed marriage.
The lively and lyrical first movement has a decidedly jovial feel. The triple-time opening theme, given to all three instruments, is followed by a related, but calmer second theme. The beautiful melody, “Dein Bildnis wunderselig,” comes at the beginning of the otherwise contrapuntal development section. The second movement’s main theme is also related to this melody, here played by the violin and accompanied by the piano left hand in canon with the cello. A livelier middle section again has the piano playing against the cello’s deep tones. The wistful, albeit waltz-like third movement Scherzo, in a minor key, again has the instruments in canon. Like the first movement, the good-natured finale, has a heavily contrapuntal development. Two principal themes are quickly introduced, one given to the cello and piano and a more vivacious theme in a dotted rhythm given to the violin. These two themes are continuously varied, often in fugal fashion. The movement closes with mounting excitement.
Program Notes for June 14, 2026
Ludwig van Beethoven
Cello Sonata No. 5 in D Major, Op. 102, No. 2
Beethoven’s fifth cello sonata, composed in 1815, stands at the beginning of what is considered his late period. Compared to earlier works, this sonata is more radically experimental. Moreover, the cello and piano are now treated as equal voices that often engage in combative dialogue with each other.
The first movement Allegro is both bold and relatively brief and begins with the piano playing assertive octave flourishes. The cello then embellishes this leaping motif but softens it, establishing itself as an equal to the piano. A more lyrical second theme quickly follows. In the dense development section, the two instruments rely heavily on the opening leaping motif, twisting it through various harmonic digressions until the cello and piano come together for three final staccato chords. The introspective, hymn-like second movement Adagio has mournful outer sections in a minor key that contrast with the more ethereal, major-key middle section where the cello plays a lyrical melody over a delicate piano accompaniment. The final movement is unusual in that it is based on a complex and occasionally dissonant fugue. The cello introduces the fugue’s principal subject, a rapid, rising scale characterized by jagged intervals. The cello and the piano then play in counterpoint creating a dense, interwoven texture. The movement builds in momentum before the cello and piano end in unison on the final chords.
Gabriel Fauré
Fantasie for Flute and Piano, Op. 79
Composed in 1898, Gabriel Fauré’s Fantasie for Flute and Piano has become a cornerstone of the flute repertoire. Fauré wrote this short work as a competition piece (a “morceau de concours”) for flute students at the Paris Conservatoire, and by design, the work is both elegant and technically demanding. That is to say, this is a work not simply to be played fast, but rather to be played with fluidity and refinement while playing fast!
The Fantasie is essentially divided into two distinct, interconnected sections that seamlessly transition from “dreamy” to “virtuosic.” The work’s opening Andantino begins with a haunting, undulating piano accompaniment. The flute enters with a melody that requires the performer to maintain a seamless legato despite the challenge of frequent modulations and interval leaps. The concluding cadenza-like passage, serving as a bridge to the Allegro movement, requires the performer to transition from an introspective, melancholic mood (played mostly in the flute’s low register) to one of anticipated high energy (in the higher register) while retaining a legato line. High-energy indeed characterizes the Allegro movement, which although at times playful and sparkling, nevertheless demands rapid articulation (double tonguing) while executing wide-leaping arpeggios and rapid trills. With the piano providing a sophisticated rhythmic counterpoint, the flute eventually moves into its third octave and builds to a technically difficult-to-achieve shimmering high C.
Kian Ravaei
Gulistan (“Flower Garden”) for Soprano, Violoncello and Piano
Kian Ravaei’s 2023 composition Gulistan (“Flower Garden”) interweaves songs that represent his “hyphenated identity:” American by birth and Iranian by heritage. Arranged for soprano in 2024, the work combines two Western folk songs with a traditional Azerbaijani and a Persian song. Each is a lament on unrequited or abandoned love, and each employs flowers and the garden as metaphors for love desired and lost.
In Part 1, verses of the Azerbaijani song “Sari Gelin” (“Blonde Bride”) alternate with those of the folk song “Wildwood Flower.” In the former, a man helplessly longs for a distant lover, while, in the latter, a woman pines for the lover who has abandoned her. The music, however, is neither strongly American nor Azerbaijani. Part 2 pairs the Iranian song “Saye Chaman” (“Shade of a Garden”) with the English folk song “Seeds of Love.” Again, unrequited love is the subtext. In the Iranian song, a man, intoxicated with longing, cannot reach a flower – his beloved – and is injured in trying to do so. In “Seeds of Love,” a woman plants those seeds only to have them emerge as undesired suiters while the one she desires – the rose – is not to be hers. Purposefully mixing cultural identities, Ravaei set the Iranian melody in an American folk style and the English folk song in a style evoking Iranian classical music.
Johannes Brahms
String Sextet No. 1 in B-flat Major, Op. 18
Johannes Brahms is credited with the 19th-century revival and renewed popularity of the string sextet. Written at age 27 in 1859-60, his first sextet was only his second chamber composition, and it was a huge success. The tonal warmth of the strings and the piece’s overall high dramatic spirits make it immensely appealing.
In the sextet’s first movement, the first cello presents the lovely first theme, and in due course, four additional themes proceed seamlessly, including a waltz-like theme again introduced by the first cello. Although there are glimpses of melancholy in the exposition as well as moments of turbulence in the development, overall, the movement in imbued with grace and delicacy. The theme of the minor-key second movement is a somber lament, Hungarian gypsy-like in nature. Introduced by the first viola, it is followed by six variations. Tension escalates in the first three variations, but the fourth and fifth, in a major key, lighten the mood of an otherwise powerful movement. The brief third movement Scherzo is rustic in nature and races through to an animated, dance-like Trio. The final movement is much like the first, tuneful and graceful. Brahms eventually divides the strings into two trios: low-voiced cellos and viola in one, high-voiced violins and viola in the other. Their dueling, “antiphonal” playing toward the end precedes a sparkling accelerando dash to the conclusion.
Program Notes for June 18, 2026
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Horn Quintet in E-flat Major, K. 407
Mozart’s 1782 Horn Quintet in E-flat Major could easily have been a horn concerto except that it was scored for the forces of a chamber ensemble. The horn dominates in the two outer movements, but in the middle Andante movement, it partners with the violin to play a graceful duet. Unusually, the string accompaniment is not the standard quartet with two violins, but rather one with two violas. This was likely due to Mozart’s intent to emphasize both the horn’s and the viola’s mellow middle range.
A brief fanfare opens the first movement Allegro, but the horn quickly introduces the lyrical main theme, which is echoed by the violin in antiphonal fashion. The violas and cello offer a rich, warm background, allowing all five players to engage in the musical conversation. The heart of the quintet is the Andante movement, offering sustained lyrical lines in the poignant duet between horn and violin against the lush texture of the two violas. The horn introduces the fast-paced “hunt” main theme in the lively Allegro finale. A minor-key second theme is introduced that emphasizes the mellow, expressive sound of the horn. Toward the end of the movement, Mozart employs part writing, letting each of the five instruments – high to low – mimic each other in turn. The Quintet comes to a spirited close with a series of “hunting horn”-like fanfares.
Johannes Brahms
String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor, Op. 51
Johannes Brahms wrote and destroyed at least 20 string quartets before he composed two that he found worthy enough to be published in 1873. The second of these is highly dramatic and richly scored. An underlying sense of melancholy pervades the Quartet, although Brahms’ gift for transforming a theme’s character allows otherwise intense, passionate music to become more lyrical.
The first movement Allegro is rhythmically complex, employing Brahms’ signature use of two notes played simultaneously over three. The principal theme is wistful and restless. A second, sumptuous theme is introduced in a warm, major key, occasioning a polyphonic dialogue among the players with seemingly endless phrases. Overall, however, the movement is dense and turbulent, especially in the development section, and comes to an accelerated conclusion. The beautiful Andante second movement gives the opening theme to the first violin accompanied by the viola and cello. A turbulent outburst in the middle section, in the form of a canon between the first violin and cello, interrupts the tranquility only to have calm restored by a return to a warmly lyrical theme. In the Quasi minuetto movement, a sedate, indeed “quasi” minuet bookends a fast-paced Scherzo-like middle section. The Finale is reminiscent of a Hungarian folk dance. Rondo in format, passages of dramatic music alternate with episodes of great lyrical tenderness before the movement hurtles towards a fast-paced ending.
Franz Schubert
Piano Quintet in A Major, “The Trout,” D. 667
Franz Schubert’s 1819 piano quintet, written at the age of 22, is unusual in several respects: the work has five movements; a double bass is part of the string quartet; and the fourth movement has variations based on Schubert’s song, “Die Forelle” (“The Trout”). These oddities were requested by the patron who commissioned the work.
A dramatic upward flourish in the piano – jumping trout? – opens the first movement and becomes a repeated motif. Spirited song-like melodies follow. In the second movement, the piano plays the lyrical first theme, the viola and cello take up a more melancholic second theme, and a rhythmically complex third theme follows. All of this is repeated in full before the movement ends. In the third movement, a highly energetic, dance-like Scherzo surrounds a quieter middle Trio section. It is in the fourth movement that Schubert introduces the song’s “Trout” theme, first played softly by the strings and followed by six variations. These are given to different instruments with accompaniment: 1, piano; 2, viola; 3, cello and double base; 4, a dramatic full ensemble; 5, cello; and 6, violin and cello. In the last variation, the piano finally plays the song’s “rippling water” accompaniment, and the music comes as close as it will get to the original song. The Allegro giusto final movement has a charming Hungarian-style theme given to the violin and viola.
Program Notes for June 19, 2026
Franz Schubert
String Trio in B-flat Major, D. 471
Schubert’s B-flat major string trio is a one-movement fragment dated 1816, when Schubert was 19. He began a second movement, but for whatever reason failed to finish it or start any other part of the Trio. Nevertheless, this now stand-alone movement is considered a miniature gem and a treasured work in the string repertoire.
This early work foreshadows Schubert’s signature sonata-form design. Schubert typically composed lyrical, light and breezy music for both the exposition and recapitulation sections (the A and A’ in the A-B-A’ format of the classical sonata form). The B section – the development – however, is often considerably more serious and dramatic in nature. And this is true of this Allegro movement. The violin opens the movement immediately with the first theme, which is graceful and song-like, although offered up softly. The second theme that follows is bolder and more sparkling with the strings playing downward scales in forte octaves. The true heart of the movement, however, is the development section. Surprisingly, Schubert chose to develop only two bars from the end of the exposition, treating it to a rapid tour of colorful key changes. In the middle, Schubert introduces a brief minor-key episode, again foreshadowing his later fascination with dramatic changes between dark introspection and sunny playfulness. In the recapitulation, the exposition’s themes reappear, bringing this joyful work back to where it began.
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Piano Quintet in C Minor
Ralph Vaughan Williams Piano Quintet in C Minor employs the same unusual string combination heard last night in Schubert’s “Trout Quintet:” violins, viola, cello and double bass. The addition of the double bass creates a darker, richer sound than that of the standard string quartet and allows the viola – the instrument that Vaughan Williams played – to occasionally take the melodic lead. Composed in 1903 and revised twice in the following years, the work received early performances, but in 1918 Vaughan Williams decided to exclude it from publication, and the work was not performed again for 80 years.
The first movement Allegro con fuoco is powerful, almost orchestral in nature. The fiery falling chords of the opening become inverted and expand into a theme given to the viola, and that melody is then developed by the other instruments of the ensemble. This theme will reappear in the subsequent movements and serves as a motivic “seed” that unifies the work. The second movement Andante opens with an expressive, hymn-like theme played by the piano and then taken up by the four strings. The development section builds dramatically and then turns quiet. The Finale has a folk-like theme that is treated to five inventive variations with a piano part that is often bell-like. The movement builds in speed and drama before seemingly fading away in a serene closure.
2026 Chesapeake Chamber Music Competition Winners
To be announced April 11
Program Notes for June 20, 2026
Luigi Boccherini
Quintet in C Major, Op. 25, No. 4, G. 298
Cellist and composer Luigi Boccherini is famous for adding an additional cello to the standard string quartet, and that is the case with this “cello quintet” written in 1778. Boccherini composed his Opus 25 quintets for the royal court in Spain, where he lived and worked and where he played the cello with the court’s resident string quartet. The C-major quintet is an excellent example of the 18th-century galante style: music that is light, elegant and pleasing. Indeed, Boccherini’s Quintet has seductively attractive melodies, but it also features creative interplays or “conversations” among the instruments that show great originality despite being easily understood and enjoyed.
The solo first cello opens the first movement Allegro and seems almost improvisatory. The other instruments become involved and enter into more of an “argument” than a “conversation” that features an interchange of melodic fragments, counterpoint, and even a fugue. The brief Larghetto second movement is contemplative and romantically melancholic. The energetic Minuetto third movement is balanced by a more lyrical Trio middle section, and the movement ends surprisingly with a brief cadenza given to the violin that creates a bridge to the Finale. The dance-like fourth movement Allegro unusually offers a shortened restatement of the second section of the first movement – something of an innovation in 18th-century classical music – and thereby brings a sense of unity to the composition.
Johannes Brahms
Trio in E-flat Major for Horn, Violin and Piano, “Horn Trio,” Op. 40
Brahms had a fondness for the horn, an instrument he played in his youth. However, his 1865 Trio is the only chamber work he composed for that instrument. Brahms specified that the horn part be played on the valveless natural horn rather than the more versatile French horn that is used in tonight’s performance. Likely, Brahms was nostalgic for the noble sound of the hunting horn, a sound he captures in the fourth movement. Brahms wrote this Trio following his mother’s death, which accounts for the feeling of sadness that pervades much of the piece, especially the third movement.
Unusually, the first movement is marked Andante, and its two contrasting themes alternate in a repeated slower-faster sequence. The first theme seems nostalgic as compared to the agitated second theme. The Scherzo second movement is more energetic, although the Trio section offers up a dark, minor-key lament. The moving Adagio third movement is the heart of the Horn Trio and serves effectively as a funeral dirge. The piano first plays a somber funeral march before the movement intensifies with the violin and horn in a melancholic dialogue. At the end, Brahms quotes a German folk song, which he will explore further in the last movement. That lively Allegro conjures a galloping hunt complete with hunting horn calls, bringing the Trio to an unexpected upbeat conclusion.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
String Sextet in D Minor, “Souvenir de Florence,” Op. 70
Tchaikovsky visited Florence in 1890 and on his return composed his D-minor string sextet which he titled “Souvenir de Florence.” Tchaikovsky had difficulty writing the sextet, which, as he put it, “requires six independent yet homogeneous voices; this is unimaginably difficult.” Nevertheless, the Sextet is an exuberant work filled with beautiful melodies, passion and lyricism.
The opening movement begins immediately with an almost stormy main theme – Russian in flavor – that is then contrasted by a warmer second theme – Italian in flavor. In the development section, the two themes are blended in counterpoint before the movement’s bravura conclusion. The Adagio second movement offers a romantic version of the first movement’s “Italian” theme, first given to the violin with pizzicato accompaniment and then in a duet between the violin and cello. A middle interlude involves all six instruments playing in triplets before the theme returns. The last two movements are decidedly more Russian and folk-like in character. The third movement begins with the first viola’s mournful theme but becomes bright and carefree in the middle section Trio. For the Allegro vivace finale, Tchaikovsky takes the opening theme into a rich contrapuntal fugue involving all six instruments before plunging headlong to a thrilling ending. Tchaikovsky wrote to his brother: “What a sextet, and what a great fugue there is at the end – a real delight.”