This is an evening of music that peers beneath the surface of things. Charles Martin Loeffler's Two Rhapsodies, based on poems about death and lost love, evoke a world of moonlit ponds and ancient bagpipes through a hauntingly beautiful trio for oboe, viola, and piano. The program then culminates in one of the most shattering works in all of chamber music. Written in 1944 as the horrors of the Holocaust were reaching Shostakovich, his Piano Trio No. 2 can be heard as an elegy both for his closest friend and for the war's millions of victims - filled with pain, anger, and melancholy. Pierre Gabaye's Récréation opens the evening with sunlight and laughter, making what follows all the more profound.

PROGRAM

Gabaye, Pierre - Récréation

Grace O'Connell, trumpet; David Loucky, trombone; Molly Norcross, horn; Leslie Amper, piano

*Loeffler, Charles Martin - 2 Rhapsodies (1901)

Andrea Hixon, oboe; Michael Molnau, viola; Stacy Kwak, piano

Intermission

Shostakovich, Dmitri - Piano Trio No. 2, Op. 67

Lidija Peno-Kelly, violin; Tido Janssen, cello; Stacy Kwak, piano

*American composer