Beyond the Surface

Friday, October 17th 7.30pm DiMenna Center for Classical Music (450 West 37th Street) To live is to struggle with appearances. We move through our days on the thin surface of things, satisfied with what shines before our eyes and pleases our ears. Yet beneath every surface lies an abyss—mystery, longing, and the search for truth. Music, if we give ourselves to it, can lift that veil. Ravel’s Ma Mère l’Oye calls forth the innocence of fairy tales. But listen closely: beneath the gentle colors of childhood is a quiet sadness, the shadow of time that takes that world from us even as it awakens our memory of it. Devin CholodenkoTwilight at Dawn (2024) lingers in the fragile space between night and day, where light first breaks through darkness. It is music of thresholds—hesitant, searching, and luminous—inviting us to dwell in the mystery of beginnings. Brahms, in his Piano Quartet No. 3, shapes his music with brightness and clarity. Yet the very perfection of its form reveals the effor