WIDMANN, MÖNKEMEYER, STECKEL, YOUN

Jörg Widmann conducts Mozart & Widmann

CAROLIN WIDMANN

“Traveler, there is no road. You make your own path as you walk.” Inscribed on the wall of a Spanish monastery, these words were discovered by Luigi Nono in the 1980s and became a kind of motto for his late works. The search for an unattainable music of the future also infuses his penultimate score La lontananza nostalgica utopica futura, composed in 1988–9. Carolin Widmann and the SWR Experimentalstudio bring the piece to the Pierre Boulez Saal. Widmann complements Nono’s meditation on space and sound with works from the 18th and 21st centuries by Telemann, George Benjamin, and Swiss composer Helena Winkelman.

BROOKLYN RIDER

Earth, water, air, and fire—the four ancient elements provide the inspiration for the concert of Brooklyn Rider, which gives voice to the beauties and mysteries of our world, but also to the threat of its destruction. The program includes modern classics of the string quartet repertoire as well as newly commissioned works by young composers that reflect current realities and serve as a musical call to action.

BERLIN STAATSKAPELLE STRING QUARTET & MOJCA ERDMANN

When Felix Mendelssohn’s sister Fanny died unexpectedly in 1847, the composer confessed to feeling “the greatest emptiness and barrenness in my mind and heart.” He poured his grief into his F-minor String Quartet, which was to remain the last quartet he completed before passing away himself just a few months later. The Berlin Staatskapelle String Quartet combines this instrumental requiem with Gustav Mahler’s Rückert Songs—works that also talk about love and leave-taking—in an arrangement by Swiss composer David Philip Hefti, with Mojca Erdmann as the soloist. The songs will be interspersed with the individual movements of Hefti’s Sixth String Quartet, Fünf Szenen für Gustav. Schubert’s youthful G-minor Quartet, written when the composer was just 18 years old, completes the program.

BELCEA QUARTET

Continuing its close collaboration with the Pierre Boulez Saal, the Belcea Quartet returns to Berlin for two concerts. Following a performance of string quartets by Arnold Schoenberg and Ludwig van Beethoven, the four musicians will be joined by students of the Barenboim-Said Akademie two days later for the rousing String Octet by 16-year-old Felix Mendelssohn.

BELCEA QUARTET & STUDENTS OF THE BARENBOIM-SAID AKADEMIE

Continuing its close collaboration with the Pierre Boulez Saal, the Belcea Quartet returns to Berlin for two concerts. Following a performance of string quartets by Arnold Schoenberg and Ludwig van Beethoven, the four musicians will be joined by students of the Barenboim-Said Akademie two days later for the rousing String Octet by 16-year-old Felix Mendelssohn.

CHIAROSCURO QUARTET

A critic once described the first encounter with the Chiaroscuro Quartet as a “shock for the ears.” Over the past two decades, the group has come to be regarded as the leading string quartet for historically informed performance practice, and with their adventurous interpretations the four musicians transform even familiar repertoire classics into unexpected discoveries. A fixture of past Pierre Boulez Saal seasons, the ensemble has chosen works by Haydn, Beethoven, and Schubert for its latest program.

JUILLIARD STRING QUARTET

According to Jörg Widmann, Beethoven’s Opus 130 represents the “string quartet of string quartets.” His own Eighth and Tenth Quartets were written in response to the Viennese master’s late work, in particular its famous slow movement, titled “Cavatina.” The New York–based Juilliard String Quartet frames Widmann’s “Beethoven Studies” with their historical model, including both its traditional version and the Grosse Fuge, the work’s original finale.

JACK QUARTET

Pierre Boulez’s Livre pour quatuor is among the most complex chamber music works of the 20th century. At the same time, the score—left unfinished by the composer—also has a fragmentary quality. The JACK Quartet, regularly heard at the Pierre Boulez Saal over the last few seasons, performs individual movements from Boulez’s only string quartet, pairing them with recent works by Eva­-Maria Houben and Anthony Cheung, among others, and the String Quartet in Four Parts by Boulez’s contemporary John Cage.

QUATUOR DIOTIMA

In honor of Kaija Saariaho, the leading Finnish composer of the 20th and 21st centuries who died in June 2023, Quatuor Diotima has chosen her Second String Quartet Terra Memoria as the centerpiece of its program. Written in 2006, the work is dedicated “to those departed” and their memory. The four musicians also perform music by Benjamin Britten and Arnold Schoenberg.