Johannes Brahms spent at least a decade perfecting his set of two opus 51 string quartets, before allowing their publication. (Two years later, as his opus 67 string quartet was about to appear, Brahms referred to this painful process joking that he was “publishing a string quartet, and may need a doctor for it (as with the first ones).”

In spite of this difficulty of conception (perhaps because of it), these quartets stand as monuments of the string quartet literature. Yellow Barn faculty member Michael Kannen joins the four musicians performing Brahms’ A Minor Quartet, Op.51 No.2 in conversation at the library.