Artemis Quartett

With the sublime Violin recital from Natalja Prischepenko still fresh in your memory, no doubt you are already looking forward to her return with the Artemis Quartet. Included in the programme is a fascinating chapter of quartet history. It is due to Prince Lobkovitz that around 1800 Beethoven ventured to dabble in the quartet genre for the very first time. The six quartets, opus 18, clearly express his admiration for the tradition of his illustrious predecessors Haydn and Mozart. Schubert's String Quartet in D minor D810 is one of his most powerful and expressive works. In the slow section, Schubert quotes his own song 'Der Tod und das Mädchen', set to a poem by Claudius. Feelings of agony and the desire for death also filter though the other sections of the movements. Jörg Widmann is a composer who knows how to combine romantic expression with a contemporary idiom. He wrote his First Quartet for a quartet competition, hence the great technical and expressive challenges for the players. But there is nothing insurmountable for the Artemis Quartet!