Mozart in May with the Manhattan String Quartet

Music in the Nave presents “Mozart in May” with the Manhattan String Quartet performing Mozart’s Quartet No. 15 in D minor and No. 16 in E-Flat Major.

Long considered “a national treasure” (The Boston Globe) for their “unflagging intensity” (The New York Times) and “brilliance” (Time Magazine), the Manhattan String Quartet has toured the world and released landmark recordings such as the complete Shostakovich quartets. Their Kent Music Conferences, begun in Kent, CT in 1989, continues today around the U.S.

The two works on the program are from a set known as the “Haydn Quartets” because they were influenced by and dedicated to Joseph Haydn. After hearing them, Haydn wrote to Mozart’s father, saying, “Your son is the greatest composer known to me either in person or by name.”

Pairing Mozart’s radiant music with radiant weather has long been a popular concept, most notably with Lincoln Center’s now-defunct Mostly Mozart series. Music in the Nave continues this tradition with the inauguration of its annual “Mozart in May” event.