The Vivace players return! This chamber music collective of New York-based musicians share the common aim of performing the greatest works in the chamber repertoire at the highest level. The program is curated to showcase their extraordinary unanimity of rare musicianship. Looking backwards, Mozart’s Adagio and Fugue in C minor employs Bach’s contrapuntal style but carves out daring, unexpected harmonies that sound as though they were composed 100 years later. The result almost resembles an Italian overture. Nothing less than a miracle, Mendelssohn’s String Octet in E-flat major remains one of the favorite works in the canon, bursting with youthful verve, brilliance and perfection. As a 16-year-old, he instructed the double quartets, in the score: “This Octet must be played by all the instruments in symphonic orchestral style.” Britten’s Simple Symphony movements speak to his sense of fun and good spirit. German composer Max Bruch’s adaptation of “Kol Nidrei” is a universal, extraordinarily expressive utterance—beginning with supplication and contrition and ending on notes of promise and redemption!

Vivace Chamber Orchestra

Yehuda Hanani, cello