Programme

Beethoven
String Trio in D major, Op. 9 No. 2

Korngold
Suite, Op. 23
Groteske & Lied

Interval

Mendelssohn
Concerto for Violin and Piano in D minor, WoO 23
 

The festival opens with a programme that welcomes listeners into three days of chamber music, setting out the emotional terrain of the days to come: music that balances wit and warmth, elegance and intensity; music to laugh and cry to.

Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Trio in D major, Op. 9 No. 2 is one of the finest works of his early Vienna years. Joyous to play and to listen to, a fitting open to the 2026 Stamford Music Festival.

Korngold’s Suite, Op. 23, is a compact work of concentrated character, scored for the unusual combination of left-hand piano, two violins and cello. The Groteske and Liedjuxtapose sharply contrasted worlds; biting wit and a sardonic edge giving way to unabashed lyricism, unfolding in the lush harmonies characteristic of Korngold’s style.

After the interval, Felix Mendelssohn’s Concerto for Violin and Piano in D minor, a rarely performed work written when the composer was still a teenager, closes the evening. Spirited, elegant and full of invention, the concerto shows a young composer already in complete command of ensemble writing, alongside the soaring melodic instinct that would define his later works.