Modigliani Quartet

About This Performance

With a new first violinist, the Modigliani Quartet makes its fourth PCMS appearance in a program that features two string quartets never before heard on our series. Puccini’s melancholy I Crisantemi (“The Chrysanthemums”) was originally conceived as a work for string quartet, but the composer later reworked the music for inclusion in his famous opera Manon Lescaut. Saint-Saëns composed his first String Quartet during a trip to Buenos Aires and the Canary Islands and dedicated it to the Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe, whose ensemble premiered it. The E Minor work successfully combines classical and romantic styles, proving to be music of great charm, grace, and facility.