In their first appearance at The Woodlands, the strings of the Pyxis Piano Quartet will offer an intimate afternoon of chamber works chosen to complement the elegance and acoustics of the Hamilton Mansion ballroom. 

Luigi Mazzocchi (violin), Amy Leonard (viola) and Jennifer Jie Jin (cello) open their virtuosic concert with Johan Halvorsen’s Passacaglia (an homage to Georg Frederic Handel) and a String Trio by another Handel fan – Luigi Boccherini – whose music might have been played at The Woodlands! 

20th century offerings include Zoltán Kodály’s colorful Intermezzo (inspired by Hungarian folk music); Three Madrigals written by Bohuslav Martinů for the legendary brother/sister duo of Joseph and Lillian Fuchs (who had strong Philadelphia connections); and Ernő Dohnányi’s stunning Serenade for String Trio. 

Come hear vibrant chamber music in West Philadelphia’s classical Hamilton Mansion!

About the Concert:
Since our country’s earliest days, this city has been a vibrant hub of civic and cultural life. In her lively portrait of 19th century Philadelphia entitled Food for Apollo (Cultivated Music in Philadelphia), Dorothy Potter describes a musical gathering:  “We used to meet round at each other’s houses of a Saturday night, fifteen or eighteen of us, to hear Haydn, Mozart, Boceherini [sic], sometimes to boggle over Beethoven, and then to eat crackers and cheese and drink porter or homeopathic doses of sloppy hot punch. We were a delightful little club.” 

Sometimes these musical gatherings were in parlors or saloons, and other times they were in elegant salons like this beautiful ballroom. Now we think of this music as “classical,” but in the 18th and 19th centuries this was some of the popular music of its time. 

The strings of the Pyxis Piano Quartet will joyously recreate this lively musical scene. Four of these composers were born in the 19th century but three of them lived well into the 20th, and the Trio has included a work by Luigi Boccherini that may well have been played in this very room. 

Pyxis Trio Repertoire

Passacaglia (after Handel) for violin and cello (1893)            
Johan Halvorsen (1864-1935)

String Trio in c minor, Op. 14, No. 2                                            
Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805)

I. Allegro moderato
II. Adagio
III. Tempo di minuetto
IV. Prestissimo

Intermezzo for String Trio (1905)
Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967)

Three Madrigals for Violin and Viola (1947)                              
Bohuslav Martinů (1890-1959)

I. Poco Allegro
II. Poco Andante
III. Allegro

Serenade for String Trio in C Major, Op. 10 (1902)                 
Ernő Dohnányi (1877-1960)

I. Marcia: Allegro
II. Romanza: Adagio non troppo
III. Scherzo: Vivace
IV. Tema con variazioni: Andante con moto
V. Finale: Rondo