This Season — 2026 / 27

The Fauré Quartett from Germany returns for their sixth appearance in Napa to perform Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder with Kelley O’Connor. The song cycle was written when Wagner was working on Tristan und Isolde and reeks of the chromatic romanticism that overwhelmed Wagner at this time. The program begins with Mahler’s early Piano Quartet — his only chamber work, written when he was at the Vienna Conservatory; it fell into obscurity and was unearthed in the 1960s by his widow Alma. The Faurés will reprise their extraordinary version of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, which brought the house down in a previous concert here.

The Takács Quartet have been coming to Napa for forty years. How is it possible that, now in their fiftieth year and with no original Hungarian members, they have maintained their distinctive, hair-raisingly intense sound? You will see as they play, with their new cellist, two tragic masterpieces — Mendelssohn’s final composition and Schubert’s scariest quartet — surrounding Gabriela Lena Frank’s 2007 portrait of Don Quixote.

Daniel Hope has been described by the London Observer as “the most exciting British string player since Jacqueline du Pré.” Simon Crawford-Phillips is equally known as a conductor, solo pianist, and chamber musician; among his many positions in the classical world, he is co-director of Wigmore Hall’s Nash Ensemble with Adrian Brendel. Hope and Crawford-Phillips are frequent collaborators for sonata programs. Both artists are known for innovative programming, and they bring us two rarely heard Dvořák pieces — the Sonatina, Op. 100, and the Dvořák/Kreisler Slavonic Fantasy — the equally rare Copland Nocturne, and the Franck Sonata.

Adrian Brendel, the British cellist, has been on my wish list for decades. Adrian’s commitment to the musical life of England and the festivals of Europe means that he is rarely in America, but hearing him again in London last year renewed the quest to get him to Napa. He comes with his frequent sonata partner, the Hungarian pianist Dénes Várjon. Beethoven’s second and third cello sonatas, written thirteen years apart, anchor the program, with the romantic, rarely heard Dohnányi sonata and Liszt’s serene, melancholic Second Élégie and Romance oubliée.

Garrick Ohlsson made his heroic Napa debut playing Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata and Diabelli Variations in 1999. He has returned every year since, sometimes twice in one season, and it has been an incredible ride — “Garrick” is a household word for this audience. This year we honor Garrick by commissioning a new piece for him by the Syrian-American composer Kareem Roustom. Garrick asked Kareem for a ballade — a nod to Garrick’s beloved Chopin — and the composer will come for the premiere. Garrick will play the Shostakovich Prelude and Fugue in E minor and Brahms’s Variations on a Theme of Handel before an all-Chopin second half.

The Cuarteto Casals’ intense performances here have left us begging for their return. The Barcelonans come this time with the brilliant Colombian cellist Santiago Cañón-Valencia for Schubert’s dark and noble Cello Quintet — his final masterpiece, a work we program as often as the stars align. The Casals play a broad range of composers, but their reputation, from both recordings and performances, is bolstered by their achievements with Haydn and Shostakovich; along with the Schubert, the program includes Haydn’s Op. 20, No. 5, and Shostakovich’s Quartet No. 4.

The Pavel Haas Quartet returns to Napa for the seventh time in sixteen years because of their utterly unique voice. There are many ways to run a string quartet; one way is with a powerhouse first violin in the lead. This ensemble was founded by first violinist Veronika Jarůšková in 2002, and includes her husband, Peter Jarůšek, whom we first met with the Škampa Quartet in 1999. Their program includes two Czech compositions — Schulhoff’s Five Pieces for String Quartet and Martinů’s String Quartet No. 4 — and then they take us a thousand miles east to Tchaikovsky’s Russia for his String Quartet No. 3, his last, with its unforgettable doloroso third movement.

American singer Dashon Burton is a three-time Grammy winner whose initial fame came as a founding member of the vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth. The Calder Quartet return to join Dashon in British and American works for string quartet and baritone, including a new work we co-commissioned from Christopher Cerrone. The Calders will also play Thomas Adès’s First String Quartet, Arcadiana.

Marc-André Hamelin, the piano genius known for his thoughtful and impossible programs, returns to play the world premiere of his 24 Preludes, which we commissioned for the occasion. Hamelin’s almost freakish virtuosic capabilities allow him to offer less-known works that most colleagues cannot consider; Enescu’s Carillon nocturne and Earl Wild’s Seven Virtuoso Études on Gershwin Songs are exciting examples. We will also hear Debussy’s Images, Book Two, which includes the dazzling “Goldfish.”

Kirill Gerstein is a standout in his generation of fabulous pianists. Kirill is from everywhere: born in Russia, adopted by Israel, educated initially in jazz at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, and now a resident of Berlin; he is in demand everywhere for recitals, concertos, and chamber-music collaborations, and now as conductor and soloist in concertos. (Don’t miss his Beethoven concertos recording with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.) The program begins with Mendelssohn’s tender and virtuosic Variations sérieuses and includes three total blockbusters: Beethoven’s final sonata, Op. 111, Liszt’s transcription of Wagner’s Liebestod, and the Liszt Sonata.