Friday / 27 October 2006 / 8 p.m.

The Florestan Trio
Susan Tomes, piano
Anthony Marwood, violin
Richard Lester, cello

Mozart Trio in G Major, K. 496
Saint-Saens Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 92
Shostakovich Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67

The Florestan Trio proves that not only the devil but the divine is in the details. With exquisite care for nuance of note and phrase, the Trio strives to make music "speak." Each member adds to that glorious voice: violinist Anthony Marwood, soloist/director with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields; cellist Richard Lester, period instrumentalist with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment; and pianist Susan Tomes, whose style has been compared to Mozart's for its " expressive eloquence." Returning to Mandel Hall, the 11-year-old Florestan Trio makes a convincing case for the popular claim that it is the best piano trio in the world.

Friday /10 November 2006 / 8 p.m.

Members of
The Emerson Quartet
Eugene Drucker, violin
Philip Setzer, violin
David Finckel, cello

With Wu Han, piano

REVISED PROGRAM*

*Please note: Violist Lawrence Dutton will take a leave of absence from the Emerson String Quartet August 1, 2006 — November 30, 2006 to undergo rotator cuff surgery.

Mozart Divertimento for String Trio in E-flat Major, K.563
Brahms Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 25

The Emerson Quartet is in the enviable position of having only to outdo itself. And it just did, winning two new Grammy Awards (that makes eight total) for its recent Mendelssohn recording in which the group plays all eight parts in the Octet for Strings. Fresh from a repeat performance of its mold-breaking Shostakovich Cycle – this time at Lincoln Center and at London's South Bank Center – these standard bearers of the quartet world return to Mandel Hall to bring audiences to their feet yet again as they perform on theirs. The Emerson Quartet at 30 continues to fulfill its namesake's observation that, "When nature has work to be done, she creates a genius to do it."

Friday / 19 January 2007 / 8 p.m.

Susan Graham, mezzo-soprano
Malcolm Martineau, piano
CHICAGO RECITAL DEBUT

All-French program, TBA

Mezzo-soprano Susan Graham is about promises kept. She comes at last to Mandel Hall to make her Chicago recital debut and honor an engagement canceled due to illness in 2003. The incandescent mezzo does not disappoint whether singing Cherubino in Le Nozze de Figaro or Sister Helen in Dead Man Walking. She just won the 2005 Opera News Award and returns to Chicago after a triumphant performance as Octavian in Lyric Opera's Der Rosenkavalier. A natural actress as well as consummate singer, Graham's concert performances are praised for their "Arabian-Night like enchantment." Having waited more than "a thousand and one nights," the Chamber Music Series warmly welcomes its long anticipated Scheherazade.

Friday / 16 February 2007 / 8 p.m.

Viktoria Mullova, violin
Genevieve Soly, harpsichord
CHICAGO RECITAL DEBUT

All-Bach program:

Violin Sonata No. 2 in A major, BWV 1015
Violin Sonata No. 1 in B minor, BWV 1014
TBA Partitas for Solo Violin

Russian violinist Viktoria Mullova has a habit of capturing the world's attention. She did it in 1980 when she took first prize at the Sibelius Competition and again in 1982 when she won the gold medal at the Tchaikovsky Competition. Her defection from the Soviet Union while on tour in Finland in 1984 made international headlines. The Moscow-trained, sometimes jazz-violinist assumes the spotlight anew; this time in her incarnation as Early Music conjurer, She will play an all-Bach program on her "Jules Falk" 1723 Stradivarius with period gut strings. One reviewer described the magic she works on the ancient fiddle as an act of musical levitation, making the music hang, "motionless in the air, as pure and eloquent as a nightingale's song." The eclectic and masterful Mullova promises a spellbinding Chicago recital debut.

The Jerusalem Quartet
Alexander Pavlovsky, violin
Sergei Bresler, violin
Amihai Grosz, viola
Kyril Zlotnikov, cello
CHICAGO DEBUT

Haydn Quartet in F minor, Op. 20, No. 5
Barber Quartet for Strings, Op. 11
Brahms Quartet in A minor, Op. 51, No. 2

The Jerusalem Quartet is 13 years-old, a fact only fathomable because the fresh-faced young musicians joined forces as high school students in Israel in 1993. It wasn't long before the three Russian émigrés and one Israeli native, violist Amihai Grosz, were claiming prizes such as the Franz Schubert Competition in 1997, the first BBC New Generation Artist title in 1999 and the first Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award in 2003. In 2006, the group will honor the centenary of Shostakovich's birth, a composer for whom they feel a natural affinity, by playing his complete quartet cycle in London, Amsterdam, Berlin and Vancouver. Befriended by Daniel Barenboim, cellist Kyril Zlotnikov plays Jacqueline du Pre's cello on loan from the conductor. With this concert, the Jerusalem Quartet will make its Chicago debut.

Steven Isserlis, cello
Kirill Gerstein, piano
CHICAGO RECITAL DEBUT

Glazunov Two Pieces for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 20
Shostakovich Sonata in D minor, Op. 40
Rachmaninoff Romance in F Minor
Scriabin Romance
Julius Isserlis Ballade
Anton Rubinstein Sonata No. 1 in D

Cellist Steven Isserlis defies easy description. With a musical pedigree that meanders back to Mendelssohn, he is indisputably one of the world's great cellists. But he is also a period instrument expert, a musical archaeologist unearthing lost cello works; a champion of lesser known composers, and a writer, a teacher, a chamber musician, a festival director and more, all extraordinaire. Shunning competitions and the conventional path, Isserlis, has nonetheless, found his way to the world stage. For this all-Russian program, he will join forces with Russian-American piano prodigy Kirill Gerstein, 2002 Gilmore Young Artist Award winner. The powerhouse duo can be counted upon to bring intellectual brilliance, emotive depth and spiritual probing to every performance, including this, their Chicago recital debut.