String quartets, cellos and fugues are highlights this weekend at Music@Menlo

After a wait of two years, the Music@Menlo’s Haydn Connections festival is in full swing! This Friday, violinist Aaron Boyd takes audiences on a voyage to the heart of Haydn’s famed string quartets in an immersive Encounter lecture. On Saturday and Sunday, main stage concerts showcase chamber music jewels, with twentieth and twenty-first-century works accompanying Classical and Romantic masterpieces.

Praised by the New York Times for their “rich sound and articulate grace,” the Calidore String Quartet (pictured top) returns to Music@Menlo with a program inspired by the spirit and sonics of the chase on Saturday, July 23 at 7:30 pm.. The Thrill of the Hunt includes monumental works by Mozart, Haydn, and Brahms before leaping into the twenty-first century with Jörg Widmann’s delightfully macabre Jagdquartett. As the composer explains: “The bragging hunters are successively transformed into those pursued and hunted.” Buy tickets.

As the viola da gamba gave way to the cello, composers explored the instrument’s powerful sound in new and innovative ways. Haydn pioneered the use of the cello as an equal partner in string works, inspiring composers for centuries to come. He also made novel use of quintessentially Baroque fugues, as showcased in Music@Menlo’s Cellos and Fugues program on Sunday, July 24, at 4:00 pm. Buy tickets.

Both programs take place at the Spieker Center for the Arts on the Menlo School campus
(50 Valparaiso Avenue, Atherton).