Chamber Music: What It's All About

This from Bernard Holland's New York Times review of a concert given by the Chiara String Quartet at Rose Live Music in Williamsburg, Brooklyn which featured Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 8:

A highly skilled string quartet playing for 30 hardly rich patrons in a Williamsburg nightclub may not be the most alluring of business plans, but I hope the Chiara can keep it up. The best definition of opera I ever heard is that it is something that happens in an opera house. And if you think about the opportunities and limitations of a theater, a raised stage, an orchestra pit and the us-and-them separation between players and listeners, you will come to a good idea about what opera is.

In the same spirit the Chiara was offering less a presentation than a conversation. Shostakovich was stepping off the stage, pulling a few listeners into a quiet corner and pouring his grief into their ears.

RTWT here.