Souvenir de Florence

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Three works, three worlds — and a single thread of radiant string writing connecting them all. Mozart’s “Dissonance” Quartet opens with one of classical music’s most unsettling and beautiful introductions before resolving into pure sunlight. A haunting new work by Scottish composer Derek Clarke, commissioned by the celebrated St. Lawrence String Quartet, bridges past and present. Then Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence — composed in 1890 and named for the city where he sketched its themes — pours passion and restless energy into six string voices in one of the most intoxicating works ever written for chamber strings.