by Mike Telin
In 1948, when three faculty friends from Western Reserve University convinced the Budapest Quartet to come to Cleveland to perform a three-concert series, who could have predicted that the humble event would lead to the creation of one of the city’s venerable presenters of classical music. Since its founding in 1950, the Cleveland Chamber Music Society has gone on to create one of the most respected chamber music series in the country.
In honor of its 75th anniversary, CCMS has planned a five-concert celebration from April 21 through 30 featuring the complete Shostakovich quartet cycle performed by the Jerusalem Quartet — violinists Alexander Pavlovsky and Sergei Bresler, violist Ori Kam, and cellist Kyril Zlotnikov.
The performances will be held in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art. James Wilding will give pre-concert lectures at 6:30pm before each event. Tickets are available online. On April 23 at 3:00 pm in the Museum’s Morley Lecture Hall, there will be a free screening of the 1964 Grigori Kozintsev adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, featuring a searing score by Dmitri Shostakovich. Click here for more information and to view a full schedule of events.