(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass.) – Composer Ludwig Van Beethoven’s pathway from disciple of classical composer Haydn to hero of the Romantic movement will be traced in “Beethoven and the Dawn of Romanticism,” a chamber concert at the Mahaiwe on Saturday, May 17, 2014, at 6pm, as part of the Close Encounters With Music series. Works to be performed include the famed the Kreutzer Sonata and the Archduke Trio.

Performers for this program — which reveals Beethoven as both bridge and boundary breaker — are Yehonatan Berick and Joana Genova, violin; Amadi Azikiwe and Ariel Rudiakov, viola; Yehuda Hanani, cello; and Jeffrey Swann, piano.

“In the art and music of Romanticism — whether Turner’s misty sea and landscapes, Delacroix’s violent scenes, or Beethoven’s stormy musical mood swings — all of nature is a mirror of the turmoil, longing, passion and sorrows that take place in the bosom of the artist,” says Yehuda Hanani, artistic director of Close Encounters With Music. “The deaf composer forced to listen inwardly in isolation, overcoming the blows of fate and turning adversity into triumph have made Beethoven an ideal model for the Romantic artist.”

Starting as a young artist working within the forms of his day, Beethoven’s transitional moment comes with the rarely heard String Quintet Opus 29 (poking fun at Rossini, among other antics) as it points the way to his middle period. The sonata for piano and violin, known as the Kreutzer, Opus 47, further breaks with convention in a powerful duet of torrid emotion.  The piece was dedicated to violin virtuoso Rudolphe Kreutzer, who deemed it unplayable and in fact never performed it. The Archduke Trio, Opus 97 represents the pinnacle of his writing in that genre, perhaps in this late period.

Tickets, $45 (Orchestra and Mezzanine) and $25 (Balcony), are available at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center box office, 413.528.0100; or through Close Encounters With Music at 800-843-0778.