This program highlights the evolution of chamber music, beginning with Purcell’s Fantasia Upon One Note, a 17th-century marvel of counterpoint by the celebrated English composer, known for his innovations in sacred and secular music. Muffat’s Passacaglia from his Sonata in G Major for Strings follows, a dramatic Baroque piece by the Austrian composer who bridged French, Italian, and German influences. Mozart’s Quintet in B-flat major, K. 174 blends Classical refinement with emotional depth, while Beethoven’s Duet in E-flat Major, WoO 32, “With Two Eyeglasses Obbligato,” adds a playful and witty touch. The program concludes with Mendelssohn’s Quintet No. 1 in A Major, Op. 18, a youthful work brimming with lyrical Romanticism and joy.
Program
Henry Purcell
(1659–1695)Fantasia Upon One Note for Two Violins, Two Violas, and Cello
(c. 1680)Georg Muffat
(1653-1704)"Passacaglia" from Sonata in G major for Strings
(1682)Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(1756–1791)Quintet in B-flat major for Two Violins, Two Violas, and Cello, K. 174
(1773)Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770–1827)Duet in E-flat major for Viola and Cello, WoO 32, "With Two Eyeglasses Obbligato"
Felix Mendelssohn
(1809–1847)Quintet No. 1 in A major for Two Violins, Two Violas, and Cello, Op. 18
(1826, rev. 1832)
Bella Hristova
Arnaud Sussmann
Matthew Lipman
Paul Neubauer
Nicholas Canellakis
Bulgarian-American violinist Bella Hristova has won international acclaim for her “expressive nuance and rich tone” (New York Times) and “impressive power and control” (Washington Post). A recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, she is known for a diverse repertoire, bold programming, and a warmly beguiling stage presence. Hristova has performed as a soloist with orchestras across the United States, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and New Zealand, and has given recitals at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, and Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. A devoted champion of living composers, she has premiered new concertos by Anthony Ritchie and her husband, David Serkin Ludwig. Her commissioning project, Lineage, features six new solo violin works and will be released as an album on Azica Records in 2027. She plays a 1655 Nicolò Amati violin once owned by Louis Krasner.
Winner of a 2009 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Arnaud Sussmann has recently appeared as soloist with the Vancouver Symphony and the New World Symphony. As a chamber musician, he has performed at London’s Wigmore Hall, the Dresden Music Festival, and the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC. He has also given concerts at the Moritzburg, Caramoor, Music@Menlo, La Jolla SummerFest, Mainly Mozart, Seattle Chamber Music, Chamber Music Northwest, and Moab Music festivals. An alum of CMS’s Bowers Program, Sussmann is Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach and Co-Director of Music@Menlo’s International Program, and teaches at Stony Brook University. In September 2022, he was named Founding Artistic Director of the Boscobel Chamber Music Festival. Mr. Sussmann plays a 1731 Stradivarius violin on loan from a private owner.
American violist Matthew Lipman, recognized by the New York Times for his “rich tone and elegant phrasing,” has made recent appearances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, American Symphony Orchestra, Munich Symphony Orchestra, and Minnesota Orchestra; and at Carnegie Hall, Vienna Musikverein, Berlin Philharmonie, and the Zürich Tonhalle. He made his recording debut with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and has since recorded on Sony and Deutsche Grammophon. Lipman has premiered works by Clarice Assad, Andreia Pinto Correia, Joel Thompson, and John Williams, and made his film debut in A. Rimbaud, playing the role of Paul Verlaine. He is an alum of CMS’s Bowers Program and the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant. Lipman is on faculty at Stony Brook University and is a visiting professor at Juilliard.
Last summer, violist Paul Neubauer premiered a new viola concerto by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich with conductor JoAnn Falletta at the Brevard Music Center. This season, he will record and perform the work with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2025, he released two albums on First Hand Records featuring the final works of two great composers: an all-Bartók album including the revised version of the Viola Concerto, and a Shostakovich recording that includes the monumental Viola Sonata. Appointed principal violist of the New York Philharmonic at the age of 21, Neubauer has appeared as soloist with the New York, Los Angeles, and Helsinki Philharmonics; the Chicago, National, St. Louis, Detroit, Dallas, San Francisco, and Bournemouth Symphonies; and the Santa Cecilia, English Chamber, and Beethovenhalle Orchestras. A two-time Grammy nominee, Neubauer is artistic director of the Mostly Music series in New Jersey and serves on the faculties of the Juilliard School and Mannes College.
Nicholas Canellakis has become one of the most sought-after and innovative cellists of his generation, praised in the New Yorker as a “superb young soloist.” Recent highlights include solo debuts with the Virginia, Albany, Bangor, and Delaware symphony orchestras; concerto appearances with the Erie Philharmonic, the New Haven Symphony, and the American Symphony Orchestra; Europe and Asia tours with CMS; and recitals throughout the US with his longtime duo collaborator, pianist-composer Michael Stephen Brown. An alum of CMS’s Bowers Program, he is a regular guest artist at many of the world’s leading music festivals. Canellakis is the Artistic Director of Chamber Music Sedona in Arizona and is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music (where he was recently appointed to the cello faculty) and New England Conservatory.