The Chiara Quartet proves that they know what chamber music is all about by respecting its roots. As a part of their own back-to-basics series, Chamber Music in any Chamber, the Chiaras performed at (Le) Poisson Rouge, bolstering a program that bypasses concert hall for clubs and galleries, returning chamber music to its rightful birthplace in intimate settings.

On April 28, the group lived up to their reputation as a fierce young ensemble with a hunger for the contemporary, presenting an electric program that featured works by Steve Reich, Anton Webern and Jefferson Friedman. Violist Jonah Sirota described the motivation behind this inspirational series on our Q2 blog.

The award-winning Chiaras are a versatile group that manage to be a cutting edge ensemble and the everyman's quartet at the same time, showing their commitment to new music with an open, equal opportunity attitude towards concert venues. They have performed everywhere from the Tractor Tavern in Seattle to Alice Tully Hall, the Avant Garden in Houston to the National Gallery of Art in DC. The Chiara Quartet has mass appeal in the US and beyond and, like any quartet worth its salt, they performed a complete Beethoven string quartet cycle between 2009-2011. They have also collaborated with musicians and composers including Simone Dinnerstein, the Orion, Ying and Pacifica quartets, Gabriela Lena Frank and Nico Muhly.

Listen to the entire concert from (Le) Poisson Rouge above or excerpts below, and don't forget to poke around the Q2 Live Concert archive for more exciting live performances at your fingertips. You can access Q2 24/7 through our pop-out audio player or iTunes.

(L)PR’s Technical Director is Richie Clarke and this concert was mixed by Bill Bowen.

Program

The Chiaras open their concert with Jefferson Friedman's String Quartet No. 2, the first of two quartets written expressly for them by the composer.

Next up, Anton Webern's Five Pieces, aptly described by first violinist Rebecca Fisher as "five tiny landscapes... every movement is its own journey".

The Chiaras finish their performance with a staple of the twentieth-century quartet repertoire, Steve Reich's Different Trains.