Boston Chamber Music Society: Beethoven, Canal, Brahms

The&nbsp;Boston Chamber Music Society&nbsp;has been&nbsp;bringing impassioned and exceptional performances of the chamber music repertoire to the Greater Boston community for over four decades. Whether you are looking for a leisurely afternoon of music or hoping&nbsp;to enjoy a stimulating live performance, this concert is for you! BCMS Presents: Beethoven: Clarinet Trio in B-flat major, Op. 11 Canal: Violin Sonata (1922) Brahms: Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, Op. 25 Beethoven’s early Clarinet Trio&nbsp;opens with an assertive unison statement, unfolding into classical sonata forms and concluding with the witty variations based on a popular opera aria then that earned it the nickname&nbsp;Gassenhauer&nbsp;(“street song”). /Marguerite Canal’s highly expressive 1922 Violin Sonata&nbsp;is a hidden French gem blending post-Romantic lyricism with Impressionist colors, moving from a tender opening to a virtuosic finale. /Brahms’s monumental Piano Quartet No. 1&nbsp;builds a vast musical world from a compact theme, featuring a dreamlike Intermezzo favored by Clara Schumann and a fiery, Hungarian-style&nbsp;Rondo alla Zingara&nbsp;finale.

Sanders Theatre at Harvard University

Boston Chamber Music Society: Mozart, Mendelssohn, Vaughan Williams

The&nbsp;Boston Chamber Music Society&nbsp;has been&nbsp;bringing impassioned and exceptional performances of the chamber music repertoire to the Greater Boston community for over four decades. Whether you are looking for a leisurely afternoon of music or hoping&nbsp;to enjoy a stimulating live performance, this concert is for you! BCMS Presents: Mozart: Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat major, K. 493 Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 87 Vaughan Williams: Piano Quartet in C minor Shifting between intimate conversational playing and brilliant piano spotlights,&nbsp;Mozart’s Piano Quartet No. 2&nbsp;culminates in an&nbsp;Allegretto&nbsp;finale featuring a melody musicologist Alfred Einstein called “the purest, most childlike and godlike…ever sung.” / Though written just two years before his death,&nbsp;Mendelssohn’s String Quintet No. 2&nbsp;opens with all the joy and exuberance of works he wrote as a teen.&nbsp;The two inner movements, however, display the emotional depth and nuance of a mature man and artist. /&nbsp;Vaughan Williams’s early Quintet in C minor&nbsp;brings melodic string writing underpinned by cascading piano lines. The expressive, romantic second movement gives way to a final theme and variations.

Boston Chamber Music Society: Beethoven, Dvořák, Brahms 

The&nbsp;Boston Chamber Music Society&nbsp;has been&nbsp;bringing impassioned and exceptional performances of the chamber music repertoire to the Greater Boston community for over four decades. Whether you are looking for a leisurely afternoon of music or hoping&nbsp;to enjoy a stimulating live performance, this concert is for you! BCMS Presents: Beethoven: Piano Trio No. 1 in E-flat major, Op. 1, No. 1 Dvořák: Terzetto in C major for Two Violins and Viola, Op. 74 Brahms: Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115 Beethoven’s Piano Trio in E-flat major&nbsp;is a pioneering work that boldly broke with convention. It elevated the violin and cello from mere accompaniment to equal partners with the piano, while expanding the traditional three-movement chamber format into a grand, four-movement structure. / Written with the joy of a grand symphony packed into an intimate space,&nbsp;Dvořák’s Terzetto&nbsp;beautifully contrasts sweet lyricism with passionate outbursts. A tender, expansive&nbsp;Larghetto&nbsp;gives way to a fiery&nbsp;furiant, and a set of dramatic, Beethoven-esque variations concludes the work with a breathless, triumphant rush to the finish. / In the&nbsp;Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Brahms seamlessly integrates the warm, soulful voice of the clarinet with a traditional string quartet to create an incredibly rich, unified texture. Throughout its four movements, the quintet wraps the listener in a deeply melancholic, “autumnal” atmosphere, balancing quiet reflection with moments of soaring, rhapsodic passion.

Boston Chamber Music Society: Wolf, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky

The&nbsp;Boston Chamber Music Society&nbsp;has been&nbsp;bringing impassioned and exceptional performances of the chamber music repertoire to the Greater Boston community for over four decades. Whether you are looking for a leisurely afternoon of music or hoping&nbsp;to enjoy a stimulating live performance, this concert is for you! BCMS Presents: Wolf: Italian Serenade for String Quartet Mendelssohn: Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49 Tchaikovsky: Souvenir de Florence for String Sextet, Op. 70 Wolf’s&nbsp;Italian Serenade&nbsp;is a witty, lighthearted gem for string quartet, anchored by a playful main theme adapted from an old Italian melody. /&nbsp;Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio in D minor, one of his most beloved chamber works, balances effortless technical mastery with rich, warm emotional depth. / Concluding the program is&nbsp;Tchaikovsky’s&nbsp;Souvenir de Florence, whose main theme in the deeply personal slow movement was written during the composer’s stay in Italy. From its spirited sonata-form opener and songful adagio to its Slavonic dance rhythms and grand fugal finale, this string sextet stands as one of his last multi-movement masterpieces.

Boston Chamber Music Society: Schubert, Brahms

The&nbsp;Boston Chamber Music Society&nbsp;has been&nbsp;bringing impassioned and exceptional performances of the chamber music repertoire to the Greater Boston community for over four decades. Whether you are looking for a leisurely afternoon of music or hoping&nbsp;to enjoy a stimulating live performance, this concert is for you! BCMS Presents: Schubert: Rondo in B minor for Violin and Piano, D. 895 Brahms: Horn Trio in E-flat major, Op. 40 Schubert: String Quintet in C major, D. 956 A brilliant, challenging work for both violin and piano,&nbsp;Schubert’s Rondo in B minor&nbsp;opens with a tense, slow introduction of contrasting ideas that builds anticipation before breaking into a grand, rhythmically driving rondo proper. /&nbsp;Brahms’s Horn Trio&nbsp;weaves hunting calls and expansive, nature-inspired lyricism with deeply personal, elegiac grief in its slow movement written in memory of his late mother. / Now considered one of the greatest compositions in all chamber music,&nbsp;Schubert’s String Quintet&nbsp;was completed two months before his death and remained unpublished for another quarter century. The masterpiece transitions effortlessly between sublime, luminous lyricism and haunting despair, perfectly capturing the bittersweet essence of his late style.

Boston Chamber Music Society: Kovács, Wuorinen, Bach, Schumann

The&nbsp;Boston Chamber Music Society&nbsp;has been&nbsp;bringing impassioned and exceptional performances of the chamber music repertoire to the Greater Boston community for over four decades. Whether you are looking for a leisurely afternoon of music or hoping&nbsp;to enjoy a stimulating live performance, this concert is for you! BCMS Presents: Kovács: Hommage à J.S. Bach for Solo Clarinet Wuorinen: Bearbeitungen über das Glogauer Liederbuch (Arrangements Based on the Glogau Songbook) Bach: Contrapuncti I-IV from The Art of the Fugue, BWV 1080 Bach: Trio Sonata from The Musical Offering, BWV 1079 Schumann: Piano Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 47 We commemorate&nbsp;Bach’s birthday&nbsp;with the&nbsp;Trio Sonata&nbsp;from his&nbsp;Musical Offering&nbsp;and a string quartet arrangement of the first four&nbsp;contrapuntal movements&nbsp;from his treatise&nbsp;The Art of Fugue. / The program opens with&nbsp;Béla Kovács’s&nbsp;Hommage à J.S. Bach&nbsp;(1994) for solo clarinet—a virtuosic work that weaves Baroque style together with modern techniques for an instrument unknown to the master himself. / Next, we present&nbsp;Charles Wuorinen’s 1962&nbsp;Bearbeitungen über das Glogauer Liederbuch, transcriptions of pieces from the earliest surviving collection of medieval partbooks. / After the intermission, we concludes the concert with&nbsp;Schumann’s Piano Quartet in E-flat major, an enchanting masterpiece that seamlessly blends Romantic lyricism with strict contrapuntal techniques inspired by Bach.

Sanders Theatre

Boston Chamber Music Society: Schumann, Shadle, Dvořák

The&nbsp;Boston Chamber Music Society&nbsp;has been&nbsp;bringing impassioned and exceptional performances of the chamber music repertoire to the Greater Boston community for over four decades. Whether you are looking for a leisurely afternoon of music or hoping&nbsp;to enjoy a stimulating live performance, this concert is for you! BCMS Presents: Schumann: Märchenerzählungen (Fairy Tale Narrations), Op. 132 Shadle: New Work (2026 BCMS commission) Dvořák: String Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op. 77 “Written with great pleasure,” as he noted to a publisher,&nbsp;Schumann’s&nbsp;Fairy Tale Narrations&nbsp;(Märchenerzählungen) are poetic, lyrical miniatures designed to suggest beloved childhood stories without depicting any specific narrative. For a work dedicated “to my country,” it is no surprise that&nbsp;Dvořák’s String Quintet in G major&nbsp;melds Czech folk influences with Western Classicism. The double bass is an uncommon addition to the ensemble, but it subtly expands the quintet’s expressive palette and tonal range. The intervening piece is our 2026&nbsp;BCMS commission by Charles Shadle. As a member of the Choctaw Nation, Shadle often weaves Choctaw melodies and legends into the framework of Western classical tradition.

Boston Chamber Music Society: Mozart, Mendelssohn, Bartók, Connesson

The&nbsp;Boston Chamber Music Society&nbsp;has been&nbsp;bringing impassioned and exceptional performances of the chamber music repertoire to the Greater Boston community for over four decades. Whether you are looking for a leisurely afternoon of music or hoping&nbsp;to enjoy a stimulating live performance, this concert is for you! BCMS Presents: Mozart: Oboe Quartet in F major, K. 370 Mendelssohn: Piano Sextet in D major, Op. 110 Bartók: Contrasts for Clarinet, Violin, and Piano, Sz. 111 Connesson: Sextet for Oboe, Clarinet, Violin, Viola, Double Bass, Piano Mozart makes many technical and lyrical demands of the oboist in the&nbsp;Oboe Quartet in F Major. From the extended&nbsp;cantabile&nbsp;lines in the Adagio to upper-register passages in the Rondo Allegro, the oboe is featured as first among equals in virtuosic passages and in conversation with the strings. The warm sonorities of&nbsp;Mendelssohn’s Piano Sextet in D Major&nbsp;come from the unusual scoring for two violas. Penned by the fifteen-year-old prodigy, the sextet casts the piano in the virtuosic leading role while the strings provide support and ornamentation. Commissioned by Benny Goodman and Joseph Szigeti,&nbsp;Bartók’s&nbsp;Contrasts&nbsp;is strongly nationalistic—perhaps his response to the advance of Nazism at that time—and explores the differences in sound production among the clarinet, violin, and piano as much as possible. Minimalist Guillaume&nbsp;Connesson’s Sextet&nbsp;offers a varied timbral palette with which the composer creates ever-shifting textures through layered&nbsp;ostinati. Rhythmically driving outer movements contrast with the unhurried Nocturne, where the oboe and clarinet deliver expansive, lyrical lines against a muted backdrop.

Boston Chamber Music Society: Mozart, Wang, and Schumann

The&nbsp;Boston Chamber Music Society&nbsp;has been&nbsp;bringing impassioned and exceptional performances of the chamber music repertoire to the Greater Boston community for over four decades. Whether you are looking for a leisurely afternoon of music or hoping&nbsp;to enjoy a stimulating live performance, this concert is for you! BCMS Presents: Mozart: Clarinet Quintet in A major, K. 581 Wang: String Octet (2025 BCMS commission) Schumann: Piano Quintet in E-flat major, Op. 44 In the expressive&nbsp;Clarinet Quintet in A major, Mozart&nbsp;utilizes the clarinet’s wide range and diverse timbres and masterfully balances its distinctive tone with the strings. Our 2025 commission features an octet for strings by composer, conductor, and BCMS’s very own member violinist&nbsp;Alyssa Wang. Composed in his “chamber music year” of 1842,&nbsp;Schumann’s romantic Piano Quintet in E-flat major&nbsp;displays a wide range of emotions. Widely credited with inventing the genre of the piano quintet, it remains one of the most celebrated and frequently performed works by Schumann.

Boston Chamber Music Society: Webern, Mendelssohn, and Chausson

The&nbsp;Boston Chamber Music Society&nbsp;has been&nbsp;bringing impassioned and exceptional performances of the chamber music repertoire to the Greater Boston community for over four decades. Whether you are looking for a leisurely afternoon of music or hoping&nbsp;to enjoy a stimulating live performance, this concert is for you! BCMS Presents: Webern: Langsamer Satz for String Quartet Mendelssohn: Piano Trio No. 2 in C minor, Op. 66 Chausson: Piano Quartet in A major, Op. 30 Webern’s 1905&nbsp;Langsamer Satz&nbsp;depicts the young composer’s secret love affair with his cousin—and future wife—through rich harmonies and the beautiful lyricism of the late Romantic era. Referred to as the “master trio of the age,” the dramatic and fiery&nbsp;Piano Trio in C minor by Mendelssohn&nbsp;moves between major and minor modes, offering moments of chaos followed by passages of tranquil harmony.&nbsp;Chausson’s Piano Quartet&nbsp;brings the stunning melodies of French Romanticism to light along with the emotional draw of the Impressionist era. More music to follow!

Boston Chamber Music Society: Capriccios, Fugues, and Suite

The&nbsp;Boston Chamber Music Society&nbsp;has been&nbsp;bringing impassioned and exceptional performances of the chamber music repertoire to the Greater Boston community for over four decades. Whether you are looking for a leisurely afternoon of music or hoping&nbsp;to enjoy a stimulating live performance, this concert is for you! BCMS Presents: Strauss: String Sextet from&nbsp;Capriccio Penderecki: Duo Concertante for Violin and Double Bass Mendelssohn: Capriccio for String Quartet, Op. 81, No. 3 Beethoven: Grosse Fuge, Op. 133 Korngold: Suite for Two Violins, Cello and Piano Left Hand, Op. 23 Frequently heard as a standalone work,&nbsp;Richard&nbsp;Strauss’s&nbsp;passionate&nbsp;string sextet&nbsp;introduces his final opera&nbsp;Capriccio&nbsp;in which the debate about the primacy of words or music is left unresolved by the plot of words set to exquisite music.&nbsp;Penderecki’s Duo Concertante&nbsp;for the unusual pairing of violin and double bass is a lyrical, rhapsodic, and emotionally rich musical dialogue, featuring special effects and virtuosic exchanges between the performers.&nbsp;Mendelssohn’s Capriccio&nbsp;opens with a barcarolle for the first violin, followed by a recitative reminiscent of his earlier quartets, and culminates in a Bach-inspired fugue. Praised as “forever contemporary,”&nbsp;Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge&nbsp;is a fierce, boundary‑breaking exploration of counterpoint, where jagged rhythms and bold dissonances collide with moments of startling lyricism.&nbsp;Korngold’s Suite for Two Violins, Cello, and Piano Left Hand&nbsp;is a lush, virtuosic work that blends late‑Romantic sweep with the composer’s unmistakable cinematic flair. Across its five movements, the music shifts from biting counterpoint to soaring lyricism, creating a chamber work that feels both intimate and grandly theatrical. More music to follow!

BCMS presents Mozart, Zemlinsky, and Dvořák

The Boston Chamber Music Society returns to Sanders Theatre this Valentine's Day weekend! Experience a stunningly beautiful program featuring works by Mozart, Zemlinsky, and Dvořák. Whether you are looking for a solo adventure or hoping to make memories of a lifetime with friends and family, this concert series is for you! BCMS present: Mozart's Duo No. 1 in G major for Violin and Viola, K. 423 Zemlinsky's Clarinet Trio in D minor, Op. 3 Dvořák's Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat major, Op. 87 More music to follow!

S22: conversations

Wondering what to do in Boston? Places to eat? Free activities? Good for a group? Date night spot? Girls night out? The best things to do? Ask Joyraft!

Best places to go in Boston? Things to do? Places to eat?

Questions & answers about things to do in Boston

Recs 💬

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S4: top picks

The most fun, cool and unique things to do in Boston. Can’t miss events, shows and experiences. Concerts, restaurants, bars, free things in Boston and beyond.

The most fun and cool events happening around Boston

Hot and new things to do in Boston

Hot & new

Hot & new 🔥

S11: happening this weekend

What to do in Boston this weekend? From festivals, concerts, performances, free events, screenings and more, Joyraft has the best things to do in Boston.

25+ things to do in Boston/Cambridge/Somerville this weekend

Things to do in Boston this weekend

This wknd

This weekend for you

S21: roundups

Our top picks: outdoor dining, free events, spring festivals, best bars, upcoming concerts, museum parties - the latest in and around Boston.  Slug: joyraft-top-picks-best-things-to-do-boston-ma

Top picks of the best things to do in and around Boston

Joyraft picks: Boston’s best things to do

Roundups ⭐️

Curated by Joyraft ⭐️

S28: calendar experiences

This week in Boston

This week in Boston 📆

This week 📆

S20: c+d experiences

Discover new, unique events and experiences happening in and around Boston. Perfect for date night, good for a group or with a friend. Be the first to know.

The newest events happening in and around Boston

The newest events on Joyraft

Just added

Just added to Joyraft

S16: editor picks

The most unique and can’t miss things coming up in Boston / Cambridge / Somerville and beyond. Festivals, food, drinks, fairs, concerts, art and free activities.

Unique and Can’t Miss Things to Do in Boston

Can’t-miss things to do in Boston 🚨

Can't-miss things to do 🚨

S2 (A): top experiences

The most popular things to do on Joyraft. Concerts, restaurants, bars, events, parties, openings, kid friendly, date ideas, free things in Boston and beyond.

Top 20 things to do in Boston

Top 20: Joyraft’s most popular

Top 20

Top 20 on Joyraft

S3 (A): trending experiences

Discover can’t miss events and things to do in Boston. The most fun, unique and cool events coming to the Boston area this spring and summer.

The hottest events happening in Boston

Trending events on Joyraft

Trending 📈

S19: interest based

Kid-friendly events in Boston

S18: interest based

Where to eat and drink in Boston? Joyraft has Boston’s newest bars, restaurants and specials. Drinks and pre fixe dinner menus. Cambridge & Somerville too.

Where

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