Kirchner: Trio No. 1 Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 2 in B-flat Major, Op. 87It comes as little surprise that Boston, one of America’s oldest cities, has a rich musical history. The Gardner Museum’s own concert series is the longest-running museum music program in the country. But the roots of Boston’s chamber music life stretch even further back, to the famed Mendelssohn Quintet Club, the very first professional chamber music ensemble in the U.S., founded in Boston in 1849. For almost fifty years, the ensemble was a cornerstone of Boston’s musical life. On today’s podcast, we hear one of the works that gave them their name. First, though, we have a work from much more recent history: Kirchner’s Trio No. 1. A longtime Harvard professor, Leon Kirchner was deeply involved in Boston’s new music community, as a teacher and a composer. He also conducted the Gardner Chamber Orchestra from 1995 to 2002, cementing his strong relationship with the museum, which has given performances and premieres of many of his works, some of which have been featured on this podcast. Our recording is taken from a January 2009 concert celebration of Kirchner’s 90th birthday at the Gardner.