Hagen Quartett

If you want to enjoy a perfect evening of quartets, take a seat and listen to the Hagen quartet. Quartet playing has become second nature to them ever since their childhood. Over the years they have played their way through almost all the quartet repertoire from Bach to Ligeti, yet they always return to the vast legacy of Beethoven. For this concert, they have among other pieces chosen the second 'Razumovski Quartet', named after the Russian ambassador to Vienna, who was a great admirer of Beethoven. Razumovski maintained his own string quartet, which was led by the violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh. This Schuppanzigh Quartet was one of the few ensembles that could perform Beethoven's technically demanding and innovative quartet style. Their importance in the spread and better understanding of Beethoven's music should not be underestimated. They performed the same task as the Waldbauer Quartet did for Bartók. With them, the complexity and the unique sounds of Bartók's highly personal language was in safe hands. By contrast, the première of Bartók's First Quartet after they had worked on it for an entire year. No challenge is too great for the Hagen Quartet either!