TGIF might need to step aside for TGIB Friday when the music of Ludwig van Beethoven fills the air at Penn State. Brentano String Quartet, resident ensemble at Princeton University, visits University Park to perform Beethoven quartets Friday evening at 7:30 in Schwab Auditorium. The ensemble is also the centerpiece March 23 for an "Afternoon Chat with the Brentano String Quartet" at 2:30 in Music Building I's Esber Recital Hall.

The evening concert is the second in a series of six performances, across three Center for the Performing Arts seasons, featuring the complete Beethoven string quartets. Brentano performs the quartets in F Major, Op. 18, No. 1, and B-flat Major, Op. 130. The latter piece concludes with the B-flat Major, Op. 133, Grosse Fuge, which Beethoven composed as the original ending to the Op. 130 quartet.

Tickets are still available for the concert. Artistic Viewpoints, which is free for concert ticket holders, begins at 6:30 p.m. in Schwab and features Brentano violinist Serena Canin and violist Misha Amory.

Brentano, founded two decades ago and named for the woman some scholars think was Beethoven's "Immortal Beloved," is scheduled to play excerpts of the evening concert program during the free afternoon session at Esber. Marie Sumner Lott, an assistant professor of musicology at University Park, lends insight into Beethoven and his quartets. The session ends with a discussion among the musicians and audience members.

Go to Brentano and click on 'program notes' to read OnStage, which includes artist bios, background on the quartets and other information.