Chamber Concert: Strings and Piano

Movements on many strings: In the 18th century, Joseph Haydn had established the string quartet as one of the most important musical genres, and his successors had to rise to the challenge of his standards – including Beethoven, who initially studied the established literature thoroughly. But then he consistently expanded the music for four instruments with his own unique approach. It was with a groundbreaking quartet such as the F major piece in 1806 that he embarked on his previously announced »different path«. He now advanced into previously unheard realms of sound, which is why his three-movement Opus 59 was characterised at that time by an out-of-his-depth critic as »the patchwork of a madman« – to which Beethoven retorted that it was not written for him, »but for a later age«. Dvořák was inspired by these challenging pieces: apart from the heartfelt Adagio, his final contribution to the genre from 1895 is a thoroughly lively and folk-inspired composition. Eduard Hanslick expressed his elation in a letter to him: »It seems to me that you have now crowned Beethoven’s sincere and ingenious endeavours.« In between, we hear a confident work by Louise Héritte-Viardot, who lived from 1841 to 1918 – and had a prominent supporter in Clara Schumann. Her atmospheric piano quartet musically captures a summer’s day with great vitality, as she herself specified in the programmatic movement titles: it begins with a morning stroll in the countryside, butterflies fluttering about, and concludes with a rustic farmer’s dance.