To start off the Quartet Week, the French Quatuor Ébène dives straight into the center of gravity of the entire quartet literature: the string quartets of Beethoven. Alongside the first two “Rasumovsky” quartets, in which Beethoven imbued the delicate structure of chamber music with a symphonic scope of sound, the program also includes a classic of our time: the string quartet Ainsi la nuit by Henri Dutilleux.

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.