Mozart and Schubert at the Theatre

At 8 p.m. Saturday, March 16, the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society and the Theatre at Washington present two outstanding works from the chamber music repertory: Mozart’s Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, K. 493, and Schubert’s Quintet in C Major, D. 956. The Schubert Quintet has been played once before at the Theatre when, according to Theatre director Wendy Weinberg, it “brought the house down.” She added that “we are so fortunate that this magnificent piece of music will be heard again Little Washington.”

The Quintet was composed in 1827, in the last months of Schubert’s life. Schubert died at the age of 31 and the work was published posthumously. It is generally regarded as not only the “towering masterpiece” of Schubert's chamber music, but among the greatest works of chamber music of all time. The English critic John Amis has written of the music’s “heavenly strength, tenderness and mystery” and contrasted the “intimate joy” of the slow movement with the “dark abysses . . . of the Scherzo.”

Smithsonian Chamber Music Society artistic director Kenneth Slowik plays the piano in Mozart’s Quartet and the cello in the Schubert Quintet, with The AEolus Quartet: Nicholas Tavani, violin; Rachel Shapiro, violin; Gregory Luce, viola; Alan Richardson, cello. The AEolus Quartet are grand prize win- ners of the 2011 Plowman Chamber Music Competition and 2011 Yellow Springs Chamber Music Competition.

Tickets are $25 ($10 for those 17 and younger). To make reservations, contact the theater at 540- 675- 1253 or TheatreVA@aol.com.