FRIDAY, MAY 11, 2018 at 8:00 PM

Coolidge Auditorium

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(tickets available 04/27/2018, beginning at 10 AM)

Italy’s esteemed Quartetto di Cremona makes its Washington debut in this concert, a new addition to our 2017-2018 season. “Phenomenal energy and momentum” (BBC Music Magazine) are hallmarks of the group, which performs Beethoven’s transcendent op. 132 quartet and works by two Italian masters who rarely ventured into the realm of chamber music.  Instrument connoisseurs will not want to miss the opportunity to hear the “Paganini Quartet,” a set of four superb instruments made by Antonio Stradivari and once owned by Niccolò Paganini, on loan to the artists from the Nippon Music Foundation.

On display for the evening, you can see fascinating items from the Gertrude Clarke Whittall Foundation Paganini Collection, including holograph manuscripts of Paganini’s own string quartets and other compositions, his personal pocket diary, concert programs—and his recipe for ravioli.

Presented in collaboration with the Embassy of Italy and the Italian Cultural Institute Washington DC.