ZOOM IN

Dutilleux: Ainsi la Nuit
Webern: Langsamer Satz
Muffat: Ciacona from Cto. XII, "Propitia Sydera"
O’Connor: Quartet No. 3 “Old-Time” 

Zoom In is an all-strings program that takes the listener from distant other-worldly realms into the focused familiarity and comfort of home. The program opens with our transcription of Henri Dutilleux’s quartet Ainsi la nuit, evoking the exotic, chilling, mesmerizing constellations and litanies of nighttime. The work is raw and visceral, not a comfortable resting place. The lens focuses in slightly for Anton Webern’s Langsamer Satz, a lush and melancholy work, but that nevertheless simmers with agitation. Zooming in closer, the music begins to breathe more easily and lilts to Georg Muffat’s elegant “Ciacona.” Mark O’Connor’s String Quartet No. 3, “Old-Time,” another AFC transcription, takes the listener the rest of the way, with its hearty, folk-inspired fiddle tunes. Its warmth is all the more comforting as it wraps up a journey that began in the austere, now coming to rest in good company, in clear focus, at home.