Richard Strauss: String Sextet from Capriccio
   Wayne Lee and Jesse Mills, violins
   Ayane Kozasa and Che-Yen Chen, violas
   Paul Wiancko and Deborah Pae, cellos

Gideon Klein: String Trio
   Jesse Mills, violin
   Ayane Kozasa, viola
   Paul Wiancko, cello

INTERMISSION

Franck: Piano Quintet in F minor
   Formosa Quartet
   Juliana Han, piano

In Richard Strauss’s 1942 opera Capriccio, a countess is torn between a poet and a musician who are both vying for her love, personifying an intriguing question: which is the greater art, poetry or music? The sumptuous string sextet that opens Capriccio makes a convincing case for the latter, as do the other pieces on the program: Gideon Klein’s String Trio, written two weeks before he died in a concentration camp during the Second World War, and César Franck’s supremely passionate Piano Quintet in F minor.