As you might expect after four decades, there were “Musical Memories” galore as the 41st annual Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival got Friday night underway in the lovely Ebenezer Theater. The opening night program spanned three centuries and up to 20 generations in just three diverse—to say the least—selections.
The concert opened with String Quartet No. 8 in B-flat Major, D. 112, composed by Franz Schubert when he was just 17. Perhaps he was in a hurry, writing roughly a thousand pieces before dying at age 31.
Written with his family in mind—his brothers both played violin, their dad played cello, and young Franz had taken up the viola—Schubert’s precocious string quartet was played 200 years later by Daniel and Todd Phillips, who performed together for decades as part of the Orion String Quartet. They were joined Friday night by co-directors of Chesapeake Music, Catherine Cho on viola and cellist Marcy Rosen.
All four joined in the weeping-strings melancholy of the first movement, which works up to a relatively hopeful resolve with more harmony and less dissonance in the second movement. It’s followed by a sprightly change in attitude and pace with a danceable rhythmic vibe. But teen Schubert’s wary retreat from optimism led (through no fault of the players) to what felt like a rushed sprint to the finish.
Schubert went on to write far more accomplished chamber and symphonic pieces. That this one is billed as the teenager’s eighth quartet is an anomaly, likely a miscount in the order of his student compositions; No. 8 remained unpublished until 35 years after his death.
In a leap of centuries, we next heard something completely different by Millennial Generation composer Kate Soper. Her piece, “Only the Words Themselves Mean What They Say” for soprano and flute, is best described by its title. Performatively inspired by what Soper calls the “fabulously quirky, slyly profound” words by Lydia Davis, she composed the text of her theatrically musical piece in 2011, originally singing vocals accompanied by flutist Erin Lesser.
Guest soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon and flutist Tara Helen O’Connor presented an amusing interpretation of what the words in the title actually mean. Clearly spoken-sung phrases such as “Go away …” or “Getting to know your body . . .” dissolved into speculative guesses at what mumbled grunts or angry arias left unsaid.
O’Connor’s accompaniment on three layers of flute—from piccolo to the giant bass flute—were, at times, more articulate than the purposely under-phrased lyrics delivered by performing-artist soprano Fitz Gibbon. Fitz Gibbon’s range may be so stratospheric that only creatures other than humans could decipher it. Ultimately, it’s a better guess to take the title of the piece for what it literally means.
Following intermission, pianist Robert McDonald, Cho, and Rosen, along with the Phillips brothers, comprised the quintet for Antonin Dvorák’s stirring and challenging 40-minute opening-night finale. (Adding to the all-in-the-family count are two players married to the violinist Phillipses.) The Czech composer, who made it barely into the 20th century, wrote many forward-anticipating pieces in a long career, including this 1887 Piano Quintet No. 2 in A Major, Op. 81.
Acknowledged as one of the masterpieces of the quintet canon, the “Festival Five” knocked it out of the park. A blistering first movement inspired more than a smattering of applause, though the piano quintet had, essentially, just begun. Never mind—Cho excused the etiquette breach with a smile:
“It’s OK to clap.”
If it seemed impossible to follow, the second movement’s depth of the ensemble’s virtuosity and the shift toward unabashed Romanticism was enhanced by team dexterity. Cho on viola and Todd Phillips on first violin shared lead-ins to changes in theme and tempo. In the last two movements, Rosen’s cello perked up the underlying themes echoed by Daniel Phillips and the other high strings. McDonald’s piano solo intros led into a brilliantly melodic, all-hands finish.
This is hardly the finish for the 41st Chesapeake Chamber Festival. Among highlights yet to come is a performance next Friday night, June 19, featuring selections by the winners of the 2026 Chesapeake Concerto Competition and audience favorites, the Dolphin Quartet.
Check out the full schedule below to catch the remaining performances.
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Venue: Ebenezer Theater, 17 S. Washington St., Easton
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Upcoming Concerts:
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Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
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Sunday at 4:00 p.m.
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Thursday through Saturday, June 18–20 at 7:30 p.m.
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Special Event: Free open rehearsal, Wednesday, June 17 at 10:00 a.m.
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Tickets & Information: chesapeakemusic.org
