Benicia Chamber Players presents the season finale of its 2024–2025 series on May 24 and 25: For the Love of Music and Words, a program of visionary and virtuosic string ensemble works. The concert features Arnold Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht, Richard Strauss’ Capriccio, and Grażyna Bacewicz’s Concerto for String Orchestra (1948). Schoenberg’s late-Romantic tone poem vividly brings Richard Dehmel’s haunting verse to life, exploring despair, forgiveness, and redemption through love. Strauss’ Capriccio, subtitled “A Conversation Piece for Music,” poses the timeless question: which holds greater power—words or music? Composed during World War II, it offers a poignant, lyrical escape. Bacewicz’s vibrant concerto—hailed as one of her masterpieces—fuses neoclassical clarity with modern intensity, marked by propulsive rhythms, haunting melodies, and a fiercely original voice that defies easy classification.
This concert is FREE for students