The “Dissonance” in Mozart’s String Quartet No. 19 is there from the opening bars: a slow introduction built on such ambiguous harmonic ground that the resolution into C major, when it finally arrives, feels earned rather than assumed. The Callisto Quartet brings this work to Maverick Concert Hall on August 2 as the opening piece of a program that asks a great deal from its performers and delivers accordingly to its audience.
About the Show
The quartet (Eric Tsai and Gregory Lewis on violin, Eva Kennedy on viola, Hannah Moses on cello) formed in 2016 at Cleveland Institute of Music, taking their name from Jupiter’s most stable moon. In the years since, they have won the Grand Prize at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and placed second at the Banff International String Quartet Competition, with additional prizes from Bordeaux, Melbourne, and Wigmore Hall. Critics have noted their “tremendous variety of color” and a “cohesion and intonation one might expect from an ensemble twice their age,” a quality more common in groups that have played together for decades. Beginning in 2027, they take up residency in the Bowers Program at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, one of American classical music’s most selective platforms for emerging ensembles. This Woodstock appearance comes at a moment of real momentum.
Their program pairs the Mozart with Peter Schickele’s String Quartet No. 5, subtitled “A Year in the Country,” then closes with Grieg’s String Quartet No. 1 in G minor, a sweep from Classical-period formalism through a contemporary American voice to Romantic lyricism that gives the quartet room to show the range those critics have noted.
Venue & Logistics
Maverick Concert Hall sits at 120 Maverick Road in Woodstock, in the Hudson Valley, home of the oldest continuous summer chamber music festival in the United States. The hall was hand-built in 1916 by utopian writer and philosopher Hervey White, who declared he would guarantee a concert there every Sunday afternoon. The hand-hewn timber structure and wide plank walls produce what the venue describes as “luminous acoustics,” a quality that serves string quartet writing well: subtle shifts in ensemble blend land clearly rather than washing out. The show begins at 4:00 p.m.
Tickets
Seating options range from $10 (students) to $55 for reserved hall seats; partial-obstruction seats run $27–$30 and general admission on the uncovered outdoor grounds is $20. Buy tickets.