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.

This third concert evening reveals how Beethoven elevated the string quartet to a genre of symphonic proportions. Written during his middle period, String Quartet No. 7 in F major is often considered, thanks to its unprecedented dramatic intensity, the chamber music counterpart to the Eroica Symphony. The programme also features String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat major, Beethoven’s longest quartet. For this concert series, the Quatuor Ébène performs it in its original version, with the monumental Große Fuge as its final movement, one of Beethoven’s most visionary compositions.