Gemütlichkeit is that hard-to-translate German word that suggests warmth, intimacy, and the feeling of being drawn into a shared space. It is in exactly this kind of setting that chamber music comes most fully to life.

"An Intimate Beginning" begins in the devastatingly beautiful sound world of Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder, music of inward expression and extraordinary emotional depth. Brahms’s Two Songs for mezzo-soprano, viola, and piano carry that same sense of closeness into a more intimate and personal space. In the second half, Brahms’s G major Quintet opens the program outward, bringing a fuller sound, greater warmth, and a more celebratory sense of release.