The Ciompi Quartet

Duke University

Duke Arts

Memories and Aspirations

In honor of the recent passing of renowned American composer Paul Schoenfield, Ciompi revisits a powerful and poignant work they commissioned in 2003. Memoirs, the second of Schoenfield’s two string quartets, is a deeply personal composition written in memory of the composer’s father. The program opens with a transcription of one of J. S. Bach’s early masterworks, the Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor for Organ. Composed during Bach’s formative years in Arnstadt, this bold and intricate work stands as one of his most ambitious achievements of the period, revealing a composer willing to break the mold of established structures. The evening concludes with another youthful triumph—Franz Schubert’s String Quartet No. 4 in C Major. Brimming with energy and early signs of the lyrical style that would define his later works, the quartet offers a fitting close to a program that encompasses both prodigious talent and mature personal reflection.

The Program
Bach: Passacaglia and Fuge in C Minor, BWV 582 for Organ – arranged for String Quartet by Nicholas Kitchen
Paul Schoenfield: String Quartet No. 2 Memoirs (2003) – Commissioned by the Ciompi Quartet
Schubert: String Quartet No. 4 in C Major, D. 46

Presented by DukeArts.

DukeArts
Duke Arts champions expansive, inclusive, and impactful arts programs that build meaningful connections between campus, community, and global audiences.

Please Reserve Tickets in Advance Here

Vienna to L.A.

In a concert celebrating composer Arnold Schoenberg’s 150th anniversary, the Ciompi Quartet performs a program of works connected by time and place. Mozart’s Vienna produced quartets like his K. 589: formally perfect, deeply learned, but with an effortless grace. Erich Korngold and Arnold Schoenberg, both raised in Vienna, were polar-opposites by the mid-1930s when they arrived in Los Angeles: Schoenberg was an avant-garde modernist and a revered figure in the Academy (UCLA); Korngold was a composer of lush romantic scores that were sought after by Hollywood. Both wrote brilliant quartets that gave their Viennese origins a 20th century incarnation.

The Program
W.A. Mozart: String Quartet #22 in B-flat major, K. 589
Arnold Schoenberg: String Quartet #4, Op. 37 (1936)
Erich Wolfgang Korngold: String Quartet #2, Op. 26 (1933)

Presented by Duke Arts.

Duke Arts
Duke Arts champions expansive, inclusive, and impactful arts programs that build meaningful connections between campus, community, and global audiences.

Please Reserve Tickets in Advance Here