Chamber Concert Stringquartet

The moving string pieces in this concert begin with music by Mendelssohn. He composed his »tear-jerkingly sentimental« String Quartet Op. 13 in 1827 when he was 18, in the midst of »Beethoven fever« shortly after the composer’s death, as a tribute to his role model – as his sister Fanny put it: »I believe it comes from the fact that we were young during Beethoven’s final years and absorbed his artistry very deeply.« Mendelssohn took the motif »Ist es wahr?« (»Is it true?«) from his previously composed song »Frage« (»Question«) – thereby making a clear reference to Beethoven’s late Quartet Op. 135 with its neo-Romantic, monumental new beginning, whose ending bears the motto »Muss es sein?« (»Must it be?«). After that, we return to a Renaissance form: Three Madrigals for violin and viola by Martinů, composed in 1947 whilst in exile in America and during a period of severe health problems. A fascinating interplay between the two instruments, rhythmic drive, but also intimate and folklorically inspired passages as an expression of his longing for his Bohemian homeland take turns here. The programme concludes with Debussy’s sole string quartet: he wrote it in 1893, just as he was beginning to break away from the traditional models of the Classical and Romantic periods and to develop his own individual Impressionist musical language. The piece is characterised by an oriental-sounding leitmotif – about which his contemporary Paul Dukas raved: »The melody moves as if pacing across a luxurious, artfully patterned carpet of miraculous colours.«