THE LARK & THE MAIDEN
October 8, 2025 | Bohemian Hall
ESCHER QUARTET
Illustrated talk by Stephen Johnson
Program
Haydn String Quartet in D major, Op. 64 No. 5 “The Lark”
Schubert String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, D.810 “Death and the Maiden”
Two wonderful string quartets launch Aspect’s tenth concert season in New York. Joseph Haydn’s Lark Quartet (Op. 64, No. 5) has all the composer’s trademark wit and subversive humour, enriched by a new-found lyricism that soars skyward almost from the first bars—hence its nickname. This sunlit, playful piece is followed by one of the darkest and most dramatic works in the quartet repertoire: Franz Schubert’s Death and the Maiden, written when the spectre of mortality loomed heavily over the young composer’s life. Romantic images of death as seducer, deliverer, and ultimately terrifying captor pervade this impassioned work, which culminates in a gripping “wild ride” unlike anything else in chamber music.