Austin Chamber Music Festival: Ariel Quartet

The Ariel Quartet plays Bates Recital Hall on Sunday, July 26, as part of the Austin Chamber Music Festival. The quartet is made up of Alexandra Kazovsky and Gershon Gerchikov on violins, Jan Gruning on viola, and Amit Even-Tov on cello. They're touring internationally, and this is one of their stops in Austin this summer.

The program brings together three very different string quartets. They open with Mendelssohn's Quartet in F Minor, Op. 80, a turbulent, grief-stricken piece that was the final quartet the composer ever wrote. From there, they move into Alban Berg's String Quartet, Op. 3, a work that sits in a different world entirely. The second half is Beethoven's String Quartet, Op. 132, one of his last great works, and it's the one that takes center stage here.

That Beethoven piece is built around a slow movement marked Heiliger Dankgesang—a holy song of thanksgiving—which has been described as one of the rarest moments in music. The festival describes the whole afternoon as one of the most emotionally demanding of the 30th Annual Summer Festival, running from the grief of Mendelssohn's final quartet to the introspective, transcendent world of Beethoven's late work.

The concert is presented by the Austin Chamber Music Center, which runs the festival every summer. The festival mixes local and emerging chamber artists with international touring groups like the Ariel Quartet, and this particular program is one of the heavier ones on the schedule. The Ariel Quartet has a reputation for fiery, passionate performances, and that's exactly the kind of energy this set asks for.

The show is at 3 PM on Sunday, July 26, at Bates Recital Hall, located at the Austin Chamber Music Center, 2406 Robert Dedman Dr, Austin, TX 78712.