Music Matters: Piano Quintets ~ Balourdet Quartet & Asiya Korepanova

Asiya Korepanova, 1882 Erard concert grand
with the Balourdet Quartet
Angela Bae & Justin DeFilippis, violin
Benjamin Zannoni, viola
Russell Houston, violoncello

Arthur Wm. Foote (1853-1937)  Piano quintet in a, Op. 38 (Boston, 1897)
George Gershwin  Lullaby, for string quartet
Dmitri Shostakovich  Piano quintet in g, Op. 57 (Moscow, 1940)

There’s no more sumptuous way to usher in our 2025-2026 concert season than with a splendid brace of piano quintets! Acclaimed pianist Asiya Korepanova and the Balourdet Quartet return to Stonington in this, their long-awaited La Grua collaborative début.

American Romantic composer Arthur Foote, pianist with the celebrated Kneisel Quartet at the turn of the 20th century, wrote this compact and very beautiful piano quintet in much the same sumptuous idiom as Dvořák and Brahms wrote theirs. Gershwin‘s deeply touching Lullaby, his one work for string quartet, is a gem of gentle, nostalgic sighing among the four strings. Dmitri Shostakovich launched his prescient, soul-gripping score for piano quintet on the very brink of the war that was about to devastate his native land. All three pieces are among the most memorable and stirring of their kind. • The rich, transparent sound of the 1882 Erard concert grand will furnish an incomparably luxuriant piano soundscape to meld with the Balourdets’ taut, exquisite playing. Join us as we launch Music Matters’ 16th season!

Tickets $25 online only. Click here to purchase. There may be a limited number of tickets available at the door the day of the concert. Doors open at 4:30pm.