What began as a form of non-professional domestic music-making in earlier centuries has become a laboratory for innovative ideas: in the string quartet genre, composers from the Classical Era to the present day have been exploring and expanding the boundaries of form, sound, and expression time and again. Over the course of the 2021–22 season, a varied selection of quartet repertoire will be heard in the elliptical space of the Pierre Boulez Saal, which is ideally suited to the blending of tradition and innovation, and, with its intimate atmosphere, brings listeners closer to the music than most other venues.
The final months of the 2021–22 season offer numerous highlights for all lovers of the string quartet genre. The Chiaroscuro Quartet with violinist Alina Ibragimova—also heard this spring as a soloist and in a duo with pianist Cédric Tiberghien—performs works by Schubert, Beethoven, and their contemporary Emilie Mayer. The Berlin Staatskapelle String Quartet and the Hagen Quartett conclude their season-long concert cycles with quartets by Arnold Schoenberg and Dmitri Shostakovich, respectively. And finally, from May 28 to June 6, the traditional Quartet Week brings together six leading international ensembles to present works from Mozart to the present day in a festival format.
