Program suggestions for 2026/27 season
The Quartet Testament
Music as comfort
L. van Beethoven: String Quartet in F major, Op. 135
V. Ullmann: String Quartet No.3
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F. Schubert: String Quartet in G major, D887
The first program is dedicated to works by composers for whom composing became a source of solace in the twilight of their lives. In his final years, Beethoven entered a period of profound spiritual and artistic exploration. Having lost his hearing completely and become increasingly isolated from society, he turned to the ultimate questions of human existence through his late string quartets. Gravely ill himself, Schubert sought solace in Beethoven's deeply personal testament. Five days before his death, he asked for one of these quartets to be performed for him. Ullmann composed his final string quartet in the Terezín Ghetto shortly before being sent on an "artists' transport" to Auschwitz.
Longing for home
B. Bartók: String Quartet No.6
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A. Dvořák: String Quartet in G major, Op. 106
The second program presents works by composers who found themselves far from home under very different circumstances, both struggling with homesickness. In America, Dvořák sketches out his masterpiece, Op. 106, while longing to return to Bohemia. In Switzerland, Bartók looks back nostalgically on his homeland and, in his Sixth String Quartet, offers a stark commentary on the darkness of war.
The weight of fate
B. Smetana: String Quartet No.2
B. Britten: String Quartet No.3
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F. Mendelssohn: String Quartet in F minor, Op.80
The third program brings together works written during periods of profound physical and psychological suffering from which there seemed to be no escape. Smetana composed his Second String Quartet while deaf and plagued by frequent hallucinations. Britten was exhausted by illness and died shortly before the premiere of his Third String Quartet. Devastated by the untimely death of his beloved sister Fanny, Mendelssohn wrote his Sixth String Quartet. During his first visit to her grave, he suffered a mental breakdown and died five weeks later.
Creative power
J. Haydn: String Quartet in F major, 77/2
L. Janáček: String Quartet No. 2 "Intimate Letters"
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A. Dvořák: String Quartet in A flat major, Op.105
The fourth program features works that draw positively on the maturity of their composers and, in many respects, represent the pinnacle of their creative output, at least in the realm of chamber music. After composing more than sixty string quartets, Haydn crowned his achievement with the masterful Op. 77. Near the end of his life, Janáček captured his passionate late-life love affair in Intimate Letters. During the dress rehearsal of his String Quartet Op. 105, Dvořák realized that he would never again compose anything more beautiful.