The Ciompi Quartet: Memories and Aspirations

In honor of the recent passing of renowned American composer Paul Schoenfield, Duke’s resident Ciompi Quartet revisits a powerful and poignant work they commissioned in 2003. Memoirs, the second of Schoenfield’s two string quartets, is a deeply personal composition written in memory of the composer’s father. The program opens with a transcription of one of J. S. Bach’s early masterworks, the Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor for Organ. Composed during Bach’s formative years in Arnstadt, this bold and intricate work stands as one of his most ambitious achievements of the period, revealing a composer willing to break the mold of established structures. The evening concludes with another youthful triumph—Franz Schubert’s String Quartet No. 4 in C Major. Brimming with energy and early signs of the lyrical style that would define his later works, the quartet offers a fitting close to a program that encompasses both prodigious talent and mature personal reflection.