O schöne Nacht

O schöne Nacht -- beautiful night! DAMASK explores the sensual and mysterious possibilities of darkness in our program of Romantic quartets by masters of 19th-century song, including dreams both sweet and terrifying, fantastic creatures, ghosts, silent longings and regrets, new-blooming love, homesickness, dancing and stories around the fire. 
We perform Brahms’s complete Op. 92, Op.31 and Op. 112 quartet cycles, featuring some of his most ravishing vocal writing; also featured are some lush, unusual quartets by Brahms’s lesser-known contemporary Herzogenberg, who married one of Brahms's piano students and was a tireless advocate for his colleague's work. Although Herzogenberg was much younger, one
of his Nocturnos Op. 22 directly inspired Brahms’s more famous O schöne Nacht. We end this program of atmospheric evening music with Robert Schumann’s delightful, Spanish-inflected Zigeunerleben.

DAMASK VOCAL QUARTET
Katharine Dain, soprano
Marine Fribourg, mezzo
Guy Cutting, tenor
Drew Santini, baritone
With Flore Merlin, piano