Performers
The Met Orchestra Chamber Ensemble
Isabel Leonard, Mezzo-Soprano
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Piano

After a remarkable opening to the concert, in which mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard performs Ravel’s Chansons madécasses, the program shifts to music written for string quartets—and quartets powerfully augmented into quintets. It begins with Justinian Tamusuza’s bright and driving Ekitundu Ekisooka, made world famous by the Kronos Quartet’s chart-topping Pieces of Africa. Two movements follow from James Lee III’s Clarinet Quintet, recently premiered by the Pacifica Quartet and New York Philharmonic principal clarinetist Anthony McGill. Andy Akiho’s exhilarating LIgNEouS 1 features extended technique from string and percussion instruments alike. The program closes with Beach’s potent Piano Quintet, which includes direct references to Brahms’s seminal Piano Quintet.

Program
RAVEL Chansons madécasses
JUSTINIAN TAMUSUZA Ekitundu Ekisooka for String Quartet
JAMES LEE III Awashoha and Celebrated Emblems from Clarinet Quintet
ANDY AKIHO LIgNEous 1 for Marimba and String Quartet
BEACH Piano Quintet in F-Sharp Minor, Op. 67