Presenting a selection that spans more than two centuries of string quartet literature, Milwaukee’s Philomusica Quartet will take its audience on a tour full of musical humor, incandescence and elegance. Haydn’s charming and amusing String Quartet in E-flat Major , Op. 33 No. 2, The Joke , generates a lively exchange among the instruments and finishes with a subtle musical jest, more pun than punch line. Also on the bill is Philip Glass’ Quartet No. 5, written for the Kronos Quartet in 1991. A meditative and lambent work, it sure to put the listener into a transcendental state and reduce the “oh my God the Christmas credit card bill” worries to a more manageable “Ohm.” Finally, as part of its ongoing project to perform the complete Beethoven quartets, the Philomusica offers his Quartet in E Minor , Op. 59 No. 2, Razumovsky , with insistently delivered themes that will keep everyone within earshot humming happily for the rest of the week.
The Philomusica Quartet is the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music’s resident string quartet comprised of violinists Jeanyi Kim and Sascha Mandl, violist Nathan Hackett and cellist Adrien Zitoun. Their presence here makes Milwaukee’s music scene a richer place indeed. They perform Monday, Jan. 28 at 7:30 p.m. at the Helen Bader Recital Hall in the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music , 1584 N. Prospect Ave.
