Drama and sensitivity: two treats for Philly chamber music lovers

Philadelphia is blessed with a group of first-class pianists who add drama and sensitivity to the great library of chamber works that combine a piano with other instruments. On the first weekend in May, you can hear two of them working with three of the peaks in the repertoire for piano and strings. On May 2, at a Philadelphia Chamber Music Society (PCMS) concert, pianist Cynthia Raim will join a string quartet from the Marlboro Festival in Dvořák’s moving piano quintet in A Major. And on May 5, pianist Natalie Zhu joins an 1807 & Friends string trio in Saint-Saëns’s inventive piano quartet in B Flat Major and the very Bohemian piano quartet Dvořák wrote just before his sojourn in the United States. The PCMS concert will include a Haydn string quartet and Alban Berg’s Lyrische Suite — an early 12-tone work that may chronicle the emotional ups and downs of an extramarital affair. At the 1807 event, the romantic interest will be provided by Leoš Janáček’s youthful Romance for Violin and Piano.

The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society presents Musicians from Marlboro with Cynthia Raim on Friday, May 2 at 8pm at the Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Broad and Spruce Streets, Philadelphia. Tickets are $24. For tickets and more information call 215-569-8080 or visit www.pcmsconcerts.org.

1807 & Friends with Natalie Zhu takes place on Monday, May 5 at 7:30pm at the Academy of Vocal Arts, 1920 Spruce Street, Philadelphia. Tickets are $17, including a post-concert reception. For tickets and more information, call 215-438-4027 or visit www.1807friends.org.