Emerson String Quartet

The Emerson String Quartet towers over American chamber music: Newsday calls them "the one indispensible quartet." Their return to Durham this season brings with it a new beginning; for the first time in more than thirty years, the Emerson welcomes a new member, cellist Paul Watkins.Fittingly, the new Emerson will play music of endings and beginnings. Mendelssohn wrote his last major work, the sixth string quartet, in response to the loss of his beloved sister. Shostakovich faced down his mortality with the brief and chilling thirteenth quartet. Beethoven's seventh quartet represented a giant leap forward from all previous chamber writing in its emotional intensity. Welcome the new Emerson.