Performers

BLAKE POULIOT, violin DAVID KAPLAN, piano BALOURDET QUARTET
JAMES AUSTIN SMITH, host

The final session of the series brings together violinist Blake Pouliot, pianist David Kaplan, and the Balourdet Quartet for a program that presents Mozart at a moment of remarkable clarity and compositional assurance.

Both works were written in the early years of Mozart’s life in Vienna, following his break from Salzburg and his decision to establish himself independently. It was a period of risk and self-definition and in these works we hear a composer finding not just a new city, but a new sense of artistic identity.

In his F Major Violin Sonata, the two instruments meet as equal partners; the result is music that feels open, balanced, and inventive—conversation without hierarchy. The quartet, the first of the six dedicated to Haydn, expands that sense of dialogue into a broader and more intricate design. Mozart draws on the structural rigor of Haydn while pushing further.

Heard at the close of the series, these works suggest a sense of arrival—music in which Mozart’s voice is fully formed.

Program

MOZART Violin Sonata No. 24, F Major, K. 376 MOZART String Quartet No. 14, K. 387

Tickets

Age 35+: $38 | 22-34: $20 | 21 & Under: Pay What You Wish