Save me, Sibelius! I can’t take it any longer.

We’ll attempt to beat the heat with the one and only chamber work from the great Finnish master’s maturity – the String Quartet in D minor. It’s subtitle, “Voces Intimae,” suggests a looking inward. That’s fine with me. There’s no sun inside.

The piece was composed in 1909, between the Third and Fourth Symphonies. Sibelius wrote to his wife, Aino, “It turned out as something wonderful. The kind of thing that brings a smile to your lips at the hour of death. I will say no more.” Ah, sweet nothings.

We’ll hear it performed at the 2005 Marlboro Music Festival, by Dan Zhu and Sarah Kapustin, violins; Samuel Rhodes, viola; and Amir Eldan, cello.

Then we’ll enjoy another presentiment of death – Franz Schubert’s Introduction and Variations on his lied, “Trock’ne Blumen” (“Withered Flowers”), from the song cycle “Die schöne Müllerin.” Paula Robison will be the flutist and Marlboro co-founder Rudolf Serkin the pianist, in a recording from 1968.

Nothing refreshes on a hot day like cold wind from the grave, on this week’s “Music from Marlboro” – chamber music performances from the legendary Marlboro Music Festival – this Wednesday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

Marlboro School of Music and Festival: Official Page