The Paris-based Quatuor Diotima is one of the leading ensembles for contemporary music. Consequently, a recent piece takes a prominent place in the ensemble’s concert during the Quartet Week: Rebecca Saunders’ Unbreathed, with its pulsating progression of micro-intervals. Also heard are Szymanowksi’s String Quartet No. 2, which combines traditional structures with radically new harmonies, and Schubert’s final contribution to the genre, a desperate musical battle between the major and the minor key.

At the end of the season, the Quartet Week casts a spotlight on what many consider to be the quintessential chamber music format. Between June 7 and 16, eleven extraordinary international ensembles will explore both the historical development and the vast emotional scope of the string quartet genre in the intimate space of the Pierre Boulez Saal.