Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: Butter Quartet

Butter Quartet, a period-instrument string quartet, presents a program exploring the origins of the Classical period string quartet. The four composers on this program—Haydn, Mozart, Vaňhal, and Dittersdorf—are reported to have performed together as a string quartet at private gatherings. At the core of this program is a musical tip-of-the-hat between two of them: Hadyn’s Opus 20 “Sun” quartets number among his greatest works—witty, erudite, profound. Dazzled by Haydn’s fusion of counterpoint and gallant gesture, Mozart dedicated his most learned set of quartets to Haydn.

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s Winter/Spring 2026 Weekend Concert Series features a fifteen-concert season curated by Abrams Curator of Music George Steel running from January 25 through May 17, 2026. The winter/spring season showcases world-class artists in the Museum’s extraordinary Calderwood Hall—a 300-seat “sonic cube” with three levels of balconies designed so that 80% of seats are front row, creating a uniquely intense and intentional listening experience. Dating to 1927, the Gardner’s Weekend Concert Series is the longest running museum music program in the country.