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The Fry Street Quartet, resident quartet at Utah State University in Logan, travels south for collaborations with the Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation and the NOVA Chamber Music Series.
The quartet will play Brahms' great F Minor Piano Quintet and Mozart's K. 414 Piano Concerto with Jason Hardink on the Bachauer concert. Hardink explained the Mozart piece is one of four concertos the composer sanctioned for performance with either a string quartet or an orchestra. The pianist wasn't a big fan of the idea until he recruited four string players to help him rehearse another Mozart concerto to play with the Utah Symphony, where he's principal keyboardist, in May. "It was so much fun," he said. "The piece really changes." Providing contrast will be a 15-minute solo piano piece, "Lemma-Icon-Epigram" by Brian Ferneyhough.
Fry Street also is featured on NOVA's Gallery Series the next two seasons, playing all six of Bartók's string quartets paired with the final six of Haydn's 68. "They're one of the great string quartets on the national and international scene," said Hardink, who is NOVA's artistic director. "We're blessed that they happen to live in Utah."
Bachauer series • Friday, Oct. 7, 7:30 p.m., Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, 138 W. Broadway, Salt Lake City; $25; $15 seniors and students; bachauer.com
NOVA • Saturday, Oct. 8, 7:30 p.m., Julie Nester Gallery, 1280 Iron Horse Drive, Park City; and Sunday, Oct. 9, 3 p.m., Urban Arts Gallery, 137 S. Rio Grande, Salt Lake City; $25; novaslc.org
Catherine Reese Newton