For the second performance on the Festival Series, the piano goes silent. In its place are intimate works for strings, clarinet and voice.

The six “Brentano” songs of Richard Strauss, Op. 68, represent a return from the opera house to the concert stage. Each song expresses an aspect of Strauss’ undying love for his wife, Pauline, who was a soprano. Tonight’s vocalist, Jennifer Goltz, has supplied a lovingly arranged setting of three of the six songs for soprano and string quartet.

Next up is the Adagio for clarinet and strings by Heinrich Baermann, a tender expression of affection in which the clarinet sings like the human voice.

The program concludes with the bracing and affecting String Quartet in F minor, Op. 80 by Felix Mendelssohn. If the first half of the program concentrates on love, the second half explores loss. In this case, Mendelssohn, inconsolable at the loss of his beloved sister, Fanny, expresses his grief through music. No lament, this quartet shakes its fists at God, and the result is a virtuosic masterpiece you won’t want to miss.

Artists: Timothy Christie, viola; Jennifer Goltz, soprano; Andrew Jennings, violin; Norbert Lewandowski, cello; Christina McGann, violin; Stephen Miahky, violin; Maria Sampen, violin; Kevin Schempf, clarinet; and Sally Singer Tuttle, cello.