Quatuor Ébène

On the eve of the Beethoven Year 2027, Flagey presents the first half of an integral cycle of Beethoven’s string quartets, spread across two seasons. There could be no better guide through this monumental body of work than Quatuor Ébène: the French quartet has recorded Beethoven’s complete string quartets and has already brought the cycle to stages around the world on several occasions. Across these three concerts, the four musicians offer a cross-section of Beethoven’s musical universe: from the early quartets rooted in the Classical tradition to the enigmatic yet visionary works of his late period.

On this second concert evening, we hear Beethoven’s development as a quartet composer in a nutshell. In the String Quartet No. 5 in A major, his admiration for his models is still clearly audible: Beethoven based the work on Mozart’s String Quartet No. 18 in A major, which he even copied out in full to master the art of quartet writing. In his String Quartet No. 4 in C minor, the passionate and dramatic Beethoven we know from works such as the Fifth Symphony begins to emerge. Finally, the String Quartet No. 12 in E-flat major, composed after ten years of silence in the genre, opens the door to the visionary late quartets, in which Beethoven leaves all conventions behind.