HAYDN, BEETHOVEN, SCHUBERT: KINDRED SPIRITS

OCTOBER 26, 2017
Italian Academy of Columbia University

The Endellion String Quartet

Illustrated talk by David Waterman

PROGRAM

Haydn String Quartet in G major, Op. 54 No. 1
Beethoven String Quartet No. 12 in E flat major, Op. 127
Schubert Quartettsatz in C minor, D703

This concert, featuring three exceptional works for string quartet, will explore the extent to which Haydn, Beethoven and Schubert, whose lives overlapped in Vienna at the turn of the nineteenth century, were kindred spirits. Schubert’s Quartettsatz, the first movement of an unfinished quartet, contains an achingly beautiful melody set off by an underlying sense of fear and tragedy. By contrast, Haydn’s G major Quartet, Op. 54 No. 1 reveals its composer at his most good-natured and genial, while also embracing a a slow movement of searching profundity. Beethoven’s Op. 127 is a work of radiance and lyricism whose second-movement variations encompass everything from playfulness to prayer.