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.
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.
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.
British composer Thomas Adès’s Arcadiana combines musical and nonmusical influences—from Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte to the paintings of Poussin and Watteau, to Greek mythology—to evoke paradisiacal scenes. In its second concert of the season, the Berlin Staatskapelle String Quartet performs the piece, written in 1994 and already considered a contemporary classic, alongside 19thcentury quartets by Schubert and Beethoven.
Josef Suk’s close bond with his composition teacher Antonín Dvořák was not merely artistic—he was also his older colleague’s son-in-law. The Heath Quartet juxtaposes Dvořák’s String Quartet Op. 51, known as the “Slavonic” due to its many allusions to Czech folk music, with Suk’s meditation on an ancient chorale for Wenceslas, the patron saint of Bohemia. Written on the eve of World War I, the composition is a plea for peace and protection as well as an expression of new found Czech patriotism. Works by Benjamin Britten and Joseph Haydn complete the program.
While writing his first two string quartets, Johannes Brahms struggled under the shadow of Beethoven, whose overwhelming influence he felt for decades. His Third Quartet of 1876 is audibly indebted to another composer: the light touch and musical wit of Joseph Haydn are present throughout the score. The Hagen Quartett’s program creates an intergenerational dialogue between the two composers.
Over the course of two seasons, several acclaimed ensembles have performed Jörg Widmann’s String Quartets Nos. 6–10 at the Pierre Boulez Saal. Titled “Studies on Beethoven,” these five works offer a contemporary creative response to the works of one of the greatest composers of all time. The concert cycle concludes with the young Leonkoro Quartet perform ing Widmann’s Ninth String Quartet, which was written in 2022 as the last of the group
Audiences of the Danish String Quartet know that the ensemble likes to blur the boundaries between folk music and classical music. In this concert, the four Scandinavians combine traditional melodies by 18th-century Irish harper Turlough O’Carolan with works from different eras to create a sound world that transcends styles and genres. In addition to Stravinsky’s Three Pieces for String Quartet, which evoke Russian dance rhythms and sacred chants, the program includes Mozart’s delightful F-major Divertimento and Caroline Shaw’s Haydninspired Entr’acte.
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