Quartet-Lab, made up of four world-renowned musicians, takes a unique and unconventional approach to the string quartet repertoire. In its eclectic programming, Quartet-Lab contrasts established repertoire with contemporary works and improvisation where the folk music of their native countries comes through. For the KlaraFestival, they intersperse string quartets by Beethoven, Britten and Crumb with surprising solos. Crowning the programme is George Crumb’s string quartet Black Angels from 1970, an arresting indictment against the Vietnam war. In the work’s sixth movement, Pavana Lachrimae, Crumb quotes Schubert’s Death and the Maiden. In the hands of Quartet-Lab, this quotation from Schubert’s melancholic quartet music becomes so distorted that it suddenly sounds like a pavane for gamba consort from John Dowland’s time.

Flagey, Festival van Vlaanderen Brussel