The DaPonte String Quartet’s second series of the season takes listeners on a stroll through Vienna, home to the world’s oldest amusement park – the Prater – in company with two of the Austrian capital’s most powerful musical prodigies – Joseph Haydn and Alban Berg – along with British composer Benjamin Britten.

“A Stroll in the Prater” has five performances, from March 18-25, in Damariscotta, Portland, Rockport, Boothbay Harbor and Brunswick.

Performances of “A Stroll in the Prater” will take place:

• March 18 — 3 p.m., Lincoln Theater, 2 Theater St., Damariscotta

• March 22 — 7:30 p.m., Jewish Museum, 267 Congress St., Portland

• March 23 — 7 p.m., Rockport Opera House, 6 Central St., Rockport

• March 24 — 4 p.m., St. Columba’s Church, 32 Emery Lane, Boothbay Harbor

• March 25 — 3 p.m., Unitarian Church, 15 Pleasant St., Brunswick

Haydn’s Quartet in C Major, Op. 20, No. 2 was unique in its day for letting all four instruments have their moment in the limelight, an honor till then reserved for the violins. Berg’s Opus 3 quartet, is widely admired today as a piece of richly textured music that penetrates directly to the truths of the human heart. Britten’s “Simple Symphony” — “a real crowd pleaser,” according to DSQ violist Kirsten Monke — features movements with names like Boisterous Bourrée, Playful Pizzicato, Sentimental Sarabande, and Frolicsome Finale.

Founded in 1991 in Philadelphia, the DaPonte String Quartet moved to Maine more than 20 years ago and now performs more than 50 times a year statewide and year-round, as well as touring the Northeast.

Tickets are $25, and are available at DaPonte.org, at Sherman’s Books in Damariscotta, Camden and Boothbay Harbor, Longfellow Books in Portland or Gulf of Maine Books in Brunswick. For more information, call (207) 529-4555.

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