Music@Menlo’s annual chamber music festival happens each summer, but the organization headed by cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han has a lot going on year-round.
This month brings the inaugural “Music@Menlo Focus” series, with residencies by top artists presenting chamber music programs paired with in-depth discussions. “Shakespeare and Goethe,” a two-day event, launches the series with an exploration of literary allusions in music.
It begins on Nov. 8 with “Behind the Music,” featuring talks on poetry and plays by the masters accompanied by excerpts from related musical works. Nov. 9 brings an expanded concert program featuring Finckel, pianists Hyeyeon Park and Jon Kimura Parker, violinist Cho-Liang Lin and violist Matthew Lipman. The program includes Liszt transcriptions of Schubert lieder and Mendelssohn’s dazzling Nocturne and Scherzo from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” for Piano, Four Hands; works by Beethoven and Brahms complete the lineup.
Details: “Behind the Music,” 7:30 p.m. Nov. 8 at Menlo School; $30 general, $15 under 30; “Shakespeare and Goethe” concert, 7:30 p.m. Nov. 9 at St. Bede’s Episcopal Church, Menlo Park; $47-$52 general, $20-$25 under 30; 650-331-0202, musicatmenlo.org.