Chamber Music Charleston continues its newest concert series, “Chamber Music at the Pearl,” on Friday, October 25, 2024 at 7pm at the West Ashley Theater Center (1401 Sam Rittenberg Blvd. #11, West Ashley). Chamber Music Charleston violinist Frances Hsieh, cellist Timothy O’Malley, and pianist Irina Pevzner embrace the spirit of the autumnal season with a program of music evoking the spirit of Halloween.

The hour-long program begins with Camille Saint-Saëns’ iconic Danse Macabre for violin and piano, a piece brimming with eerie brilliance. Originally inspired by a poem of the same name, the work was first composed in 1872 as a brief song for baritone and piano. Saint-Saëns later expanded it in 1874 into a tone poem for solo violin and orchestra, weaving in spine-tingling elements to amplify its supernatural atmosphere. In the orchestral version, the xylophone mimics the unsettling clatter of skeleton bones. Both the orchestral and violin/piano versions feature the frequent use of the tritone—referred to in early music as the “diabolus in musica” or “devil in music.” Adding to the ghostly mood, Saint-Saëns incorporates the Dies Irae, the solemn Gregorian chant from the Requiem Mass, a motif often used by composers to evoke images of death and judgment.

After a brief foray into the world of cello virtuosity with the “Requiebros” by Spanish cellist and composer Gaspar Cassadó, the program concludes with Ludwig van Beethoven’s renowned Piano Trio in D Major, Op. 70 No. 1, famously dubbed the “Ghost.” The trio’s eerie slow movement is reminiscent of the ghost scene in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” providing a fittingly spectral conclusion to the evening’s performance.
Nestled within Ashley Landing in West Ashley, the Pearl Theatre of the Charleston Stage offers a dynamic venue with two dance and rehearsal studios and a 130-seat performance space known as “The Pearl” or the Pearlstine Theatre, named in honor of a generous contribution from the Pearlstine Family.

Tickets start at $25 ($5 for students/parents) and are available in advance online at https://www.chambermusiccharleston.org/pearl/