In "Redefine or Redesign," presented in partnership and gratitude with season host the Houston Saengerbund, listeners will join the Axiom Quartet on a scavenger hunt through the 300-year saga of the German string quartet.

Interspersed between candid conversations and historical connective tissue, Axiom will perform movements from Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms, and Schoenberg String Quartets. From one composer to the next, from one decade to the next, we’ll explore a notion that defines the evolution – or, you might say, devolution – of music history: when have composers redefined or repurposed the musical language they inherited, and when have they abandoned its grammar to redesign entirely new tools? How were these composers reacting to each other, both inventive and conscious of their legacy? Together we’ll turn the pages in this fascinating story of love, ego, hardship, and music that has withstood the test of time.