Trials and Trifles is a journey exploring the breadth of musical understanding. Beginning with the gentle, though virtuosic quartet Op. 54 no. 3 by Haydn, it is followed by the harrowing intensity and soul plunging depths of Canadian composer of Chinese descent, Chan Ka Nin’s string quartet number 4, written for tragically slain 9 year old Cecilia Zhang. To finish the program, we move again to lighter fare, to the unexpectedly easy grace of Brahms’ third quartet, a “useless trifle” to hear him describe it. The dynamic Adorado string quartet brings these works to life in a riveting and sensitive performance that promises to move and inspire.
