Tuesdays at 7pm through August 18
Photo: Mark Holm
The 2026–27 Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival radio series brings you a rich mix of beautifully recorded performances from the Festival’s 2025 summer season. Each program features two or three complete works, showcasing the depth and variety of the chamber music repertoire. You’ll hear everything from beloved masterworks to compelling discoveries by lesser-known composers.
2026 Schedule
July 7
Stellar pianist Kirill Gerstein opens this Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival broadcast with a new work called Two Waltzes Toward Civilization, which the award-winning Spanish composer Francisco Coll wrote especially for him. After the Coll, we have a piece Schubert composed for what was, in 1824, a brand-new instrument. Today, the arpeggione – a kind of cross between a cello and guitar – is virtually unknown. Schubert’s Sonata for Arpeggione & Piano in A Minor, however, remains one of the most lyrical and tranquil pieces in the repertoire. Today, this piece is often played on the cello, and we will hear a gorgeous performance by cellist Paul Watkins and pianist Ran Dank. Closing the hour, we have the Dover Quartet and their riveting interpretation of Dvorák’s quintessential Czech take on American, the melodious String Quartet in F Major.
FRANCISCO COLL
Two Waltzes Toward Civilization after Lorca’s Poet in New York) (2024)
Waltz in the Branches
Little Viennese Waltz
Kirill Gerstein, pianoW.A. MOZART
Sonata in F Major for Violin and Piano, K. 376 (1781)
Allegro
Andante
Rondo: Allegretto grazioso
Paul Huang, violin and Orion Weiss, pianoANTONÍN DVORÁK
String Quartet in F Major, Op. 96, American (1893)
Allegro ma non troppo
Lento
Scherzo
Finale: Vivace ma non troppo
Dover Quartet (Joel Link, Bryan Lee, violin; Hezekiah Leung, viola; Camden Shaw, cello)
July 14
This wide-ranging program brings together two very distinctive trios for horn, violin, and piano. Each expresses archetypal music from two very different yet important and idiosyncratic composers. In both pieces, we have exceptional performances from the Berlin Philharmonic’s principal horn, Stefan Dohr, the American violinist William Hagen, and the magnificent pianist Kirill Gerstein. Gerstein brings out the lyrical aspects in Ligeti’s singular trio, which the composer wrote in 1982 and intended as an Hommage à Brahms. Later, these dazzling collaborators perform Brahms’s wonderful 1865 horn trio, a pastoral, soothing work, which Brahms wrote after the death of his mother, and which provides grace for the living in a time of mourning.
GYÖRGY LIGETI
Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano, Hommage à Brahms (1982)
Andantino con tenerezza
Vivacissimo molto ritmico
Alla Marcia
Lamento. Adagio
Stefan Dohr, French horn; William Hagen, violin; Kirill Gerstein, pianoJOHANNES BRAHMS
Horn Trio in E-flat Major, Op. 40 (1865)
Andante
Scherzo: Allegro
Adagio mesto
Finale: Allegro con brio
Stefan Dohr, French horn; William Hagen, violin; Kirill Gerstein, piano
July 21
The tradition of using music to accompany banquets and feasts is probably as old as music itself, but that didn’t limit Telemann to composing musical wallpaper. On the contrary, Telemann’s Quartet in G Major from Tafelmusik is spirited, bright, and brilliantly crafted. To oboist Frank Rosenwein, “Telemann is like Bach – an incredible watchmaker. He can create really intricate structures within this music, and his genius is that it comes off as very easy to listen to.” Following the Telemann, pianist Katia Skanavi, violinist William Hagen, violist Hezekiah Leung, and cellist Mihai Marica perform Dvořák’s sweeping, orchestral-like Piano Quartet in E-flat Major.
GEORG PHILIPP TELEMANN
Quartet in G Major from Tafelmusik, TWV 43:G2 (1733)
Largo – Allegro – Largo
Vivace – Moderato – Vivace
Grave
Vivace
Tara Helen O’Connor, flute; Frank Rosenwein, oboe; Daniel Phillips, violin; Felix Fan, cello; Paolo Bordignon, harpsichordANTONÍN DVORÁK
Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 87 (1889)
Allegro con fuoco
Lento
Allegro moderato, grazioso
Finale: Allegro ma non troppo
Katia Skanavi, piano; William Hagen, violin; Hezekiah Leung, viola; Mihai Marica, cello
July 28
Week 10 of the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival’s 2026 radio series begins as Chad Hoopes and the Dover Quartet’s second violinist, Bryan Lee, play one of Bach’s most cherished works: the incomparable Concerto in D Minor for Two Violins, known as the “Bach Double.” Soprano Liv Redpath and her frequent collaborator, pianist George Fu, perform a pair of youthful songs by Debussy. The hour concludes with one of those rarely performed pieces the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival is known for. The musician, composer, and pedagogue Frank Bridge began in the pastoral English sound world and evolved into what Festival artistic director Marc Neikrug calls “his own true voice, his own world.” Pianist Orion Weiss, violinist Jennifer Frautschi, and cellist Felix Fan give a breathtaking performance of Bridge’s gnarly and brilliant 1929 Piano Trio No. 2.
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
Concerto in D Minor for Two Violins, BWV 1043 (1720)
Vivace
Largo, ma non tanto
Allegro
Violinists Chad Hoopes and Bryan Lee, soloists; with an ensemble of Santa Fe Opera Orchestra musicians, led by Daniel Jordan as concertmaster.CLAUDE DEBUSSY
“Jane” (1881) & “Romance: Silence ineffable” (1883)
Liv Redpath, soprano; George Fu, pianoFRANK BRIDGE
Piano Trio No. 2, H. 178 (1929)
Allegretto ben moderato—
Molto allegro
Andante molto moderato—
Allegro ma non troppo
Orion Weiss, piano; Jennifer Frautschi, violin; Felix Fan, cello
August 4
Week 11 features two very different early 20th century works, with composers expressing themselves in two very different means. In Ravel’s 1921 Sonata for Violin and Cello, two melodic instruments explore their mutual and individualistic sonorities. Violinist Leila Josefowicz and cellist Paul Watkins join forces in performing Ravel’s entrancing composition, which he wrote in the aftermath of World War I and dedicated in memory of Debussy. Dohnányi’s stunningly inventive and heroic Sextet, performed by an ensemble of Festival musicians that includes clarinetist David Shifrin and Berlin Philharmonic principal horn Stefan Dohr, brings the program to a dramatic close.
MAURICE RAVEL
Sonata for Violin and Cello, M. 73 (1920-22)
Allegro
Scherzo: Très vif
Lent
Vif, avec entrain
Leila Josefowicz, violin; Paul Watkins, celloERNST VON DOHNÁNYI
Sextet in C major for Clarinet, Horn, Violin, Viola, Cello, and Piano, Op. 37 (1935)
Allegro appassionato
Intermezzo: Adagio
Allegro con sentiment
Finale: Allegro vivace, giocoso
David Shifrin, clarinet; Stefan Dohr, horn; Jennifer Frautschi, violin; Toby Appel, viola; Eric Kim, cello; Soyeon Kate Lee, piano
August 11
Pairing a baroque-era gem with two late works by Mendelssohn, Week 12 begins with stunning music that isn’t heard often enough: a Trio Sonata composed around 1745 by Bach’s contemporary, Giovanni Benedetto Platti. Platti expands the cello’s role from bass line to a more singing, melodic role, much to the delight of cellist Felix Fan, who enjoyed the “soloistic phrases” and the opportunity to have “a conversation” with oboist Frank Rosenwein. The brilliant and lyrical harpsichord player, Paolo Bordignon, rounds out the ensemble. Rocked by the loss of his sister Fanny, Felix Mendelssohn began one of the last chamber works he would ever write before his own demise, at the age of 38. The Escher String Quartet performs the two movements of Mendelssohn’s Opus 81 Andante and Scherzo with pathos, sensitivity and depth. Mendelssohn wrote his second and final piano trio in April 1845. Masterful, idiomatic writing drives the epic Trio in C Minor, and here it is played with great virtuosity by Gilles Vonsattel, piano; Yura Lee, violin; Mark Kosower, cello.
GIOVANNI BENEDETTO PLATTI
Trio Sonata in G Minor (c. 1745)
Adagio
Allegro
Adagio
Allegro
Frank Rosenwein, oboe; Felix Fan, cello; Paolo Bordignon, harpsichordFELIX MENDELSSOHN
Andante and Scherzo for String Quartet, Op. 81
Escher String Quartet (Adam Barnett-Hart, James Thompson, violin; Pierre Lapointe, viola; Brook Speltz, cello)FELIX MENDELSSOHN
Trio in C Minor, Op. 66 (1845)
Allegro energico e con fuoco
Andante espressivo
Scherzo: Molto allegro quasi presto
Finale: Allegro appassionato
Gilles Vonsattel, piano; Yura Lee, violin; Mark Kosower, cello
August 18
The culminating episode holds a masterwork by Brahms and an emotionally powerful song by Schubert. To begin, soprano Liv Redpath sings “Ganymed,” which Schubert based on a poem of the same name by Goethe. The poem tells the story of a handsome youth who’s taken up to heaven on the back of an eagle to become a cupbearer for the gods. Mature music of Brahms brings this 2026 season of performances from the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival to a close. Brahms stretches the parameters of the classical form in his Opus 26 Piano Quartet in A Major, a work Festival artistic director Marc Neikrug describes as “beyond beautiful, beyond sumptuous, beyond rich.” For this performance, Neikrug brings together a sublime group of collaborators: pianist Kirill Gerstein, violinist Joel Link, violist Toby Appel, and cellist Camden Shaw.
FRANZ SCHUBERT
“Ganymed,” D. 544 (1817)
Liv Redpath, soprano; George Fu, pianoJOHANNES BRAHMS
Piano Quartet in A Major, Op. 26 (1861-62)
Allegro non troppo
Poco adagio
Scherzo: Poco allegro
Finale: Allegro
Kirill Gerstein, piano; Joel Link, violin; Toby Appel, viola; Camden Shaw, cello