ConcertPulse
NDR Chamber Music Concert with the Noah Quartett
Elbphilharmonie, Kleiner Saal (Hamburg)
The NDR’s chamber concert season comes to a close with the ultimate genre in chamber music: the programme selected by the Noah Quartet – which is made up of musicians from the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra – features three string quartets. The enigmatic standalone Quartet Movement in C minor is one of the numerous scattered pieces of individual movements that Franz Schubert never completed. Its tragic, shimmering energy makes it impossible not to lament Schubert’s failure to go further than this single movement. Beethoven’s Three Quartets Op. 59 were nothing less than a revolution for the string quartet genre. Never before had such density of motivic combination, polyphonic sleekness and thematic finesse been achieved in the form. Despite their complexity, the works were immediately successful: »In Vienna, Beethoven’s latest ¬– difficult yet tasteful – quartets are enjoying increasing popularity; their admirers hope to see them in print soon,« reported one enthusiastic reviewer. Although now very popular with artists and audiences alike, Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet was initially met not only with bafflement and amazement, but also with disapproval and hostility. Ravel had delivered an abundance of melodic and harmonic surprises for which the time was apparently not ripe. Gabriel Fauré, as a teacher and dedicatee, like many other composers, was very reserved about the work. It took some clear words from Claude Debussy to gradually pave the way for the work’s acceptance.