The Emerson String Quartet will present an afternoon recital in Kilbourn Hall featuring music from the early 17th-century to the masterworks of the 20th-century. The Emerson String Quartet has an unparalleled list of achievements across three decades: more than 30 acclaimed recordings, 9 Grammys, 3 Gramophone Awards, the Avery Fisher Prize, and collaborations with many of the great artists of our time. In 2013, cellist Paul Watkins joined the ensemble, which also includes violinists Eugene Drucker and Philip Setzer, and violist Lawrence Dutton. (The quartet was founded in1976 in New York City.) The afternoon program will begin with Purcell's Chacony and Two Fantasies. The Berg Lyric Suite, composed in 1926, is worlds apart, with challenging sonorities and terseness. The program ends with Beethoven's great Op.132 string quartet.

The Emerson String Quartet will perform on Sunday, February 1, at Kilbourn Hall, Eastman School, 28 Gibbs Street. 3 p.m. $17-$27. 454-2100; esm.rochester.edu.