Bridgehampton Chamber Music Presents a Spring Concert Series

BCM Spring, Bridgehampton Chamber Music’s spring series, welcomes the season of renewal in 2025 with three lively Saturday evening programs featuring some of the best chamber musicians performing today.

The Danish String Quartet, one of today’s most exciting chamber ensembles, makes its BCM debut on April 5 with a concert featuring the music of Shostakovich and Schubert. “Spring’s Clarity” on April 26 evokes the freshness of spring with music for winds — Eugene Goossens’s “Pastorale et Arlequinade” for flute, oboe and piano; William Grant Still’s Summerland for flute and piano; and Grazyna Bacewicz’s Oboe Sonata — as well as Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio No. 2. The series culminates on May 17 with a program spotlighting great piano quartets, featuring Mahler’s only existing piece of instrumental chamber music, his Piano Quartet in A minor, and Brahms’s Piano Quartet in G minor, which concludes with the popular “Rondo alla Zingaresque.” (The complete programs follow below.)

Led by flutist and BCM’s artistic director Marya Martin, the series’ musicians include James Austin Smith, oboe; Paul Huang, violin; Chad Hoopes, violin; Ettore Causa, viola; Clive Greensmith, cello; Saeunn Thorsteinsdottir, cello; Michael Stephen Brown, piano; Shai Wosner, piano; and the Danish String Quartet.

The three concerts take place at 5 p.m. at BCM’s home venue, Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, 2429 Montauk Highway, Bridgehampton.

The Danish String Quartet describes itself thus: “We are three Danes and one Norwegian cellist, making this a truly Scandinavian endeavor. Being relatively bearded, we are often compared to the Vikings. However, we are only pillaging the English coastline occasionally.”

The group has been acclaimed worldwide for its inventive programming and startling clarity of ensemble, their ability to play as one.

BCM Spring 2025

All concerts begin at 5 p.m. at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church. Tickets for each concert are $75, $50 and $10 for students at bcmf.org.

Saturday, April 5 — Danish String Quartet makes its Bridgehampton debut with a fascinating and luminous program that culminates in Schubert’s epic final String Quartet in G major.

Dmitri Shostakovich — String Quartet No. 4 in D major, Op. 83

Franz Schubert — String Quartet No. 15 in G major, D. 887

Danish String Quartet: Frederik Øland, violin; Rune Tonsgaard Sørenson, violin; Asbjørn Nørgaard, viola; Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin, cello.

Saturday, April 26 — “Spring’s Clarity” sparkles with a wide-ranging program that features works by William Grant Still, Eugene Aynsley Goosens, Grażyna Bacewicz and finishes with Mendelssohn’s stunning Piano Trio in C minor.

Eugene Goossens — “Pastorale et Arlequinade” for Flute, Oboe and Piano

Grazyna Bacewicz — “Oboe Sonata”

William Grant Still — “Summerland” for Flute and Piano

Felix Mendelssohn — Piano Trio No. 2 in C minor

Marya Martin, flute; James Austin Smith, oboe; Chad Hoopes, violin; Saeunn Thorsteinsdottir, cello; Shai Wosner, piano.

Saturday, May 17 — “Mahler and Brahms” brings the 2025 spring season to a close with a fantastic journey from Mahler’s darkly-hued Piano Quartet and Belinda Reynold’s propulsive trio for flute, cello and piano, to Brahms’s heart-racing Piano Quartet in G minor.

Gustav Mahler — Piano Quartet in A minor (10’)

Belinda Reynolds — Cover for Flute, Cello, and Piano (10’)

Johannes Brahms — Piano Quartet in G minor, Op. 25

Marya Martin, flute; Michael Stephen Brown, piano; Paul Huang, violin; Ettore Causa, viola; Clive Greensmith, cello.