Rush-Hour Lates with Brodsky Quartet: Beethoven Opp. 135 & 133
Concert IV
Beethoven 250
| Beethoven | String Quartet No. 16 in F, Op. 135 |
|---|---|
| Mendelssohn | Fugue, Op. 81 No. 4 |
| Beethoven | Große Fuge, Op. 133 |
‘The Brodskys’ ability to communicate on so many levels – humanity and virtuosity all part of the essential integrity of their approach…’ The Guardian
In this special anniversary series, the acclaimed Brodsky Quartet perform Beethoven’s late string quartets, one at a time, lovingly set up with musical preludes.
Op. 135 is the surprise finale of the late quartets, a work of classical proportions which radiates good humour and acceptance: Beethoven singled out his opening motifs and wrote, ‘Must it be? – it must be.’
Mendelssohn’s touching little fugue provides an ideal preface to Beethoven’s towering masterpiece, the original last movement of Op. 130, Grosse Fuge. The composer’s greatest assault on the form, this ‘great fugue, part free, part worked-through’, is an edifice of extreme disjunction, unmeasured pauses and unrelieved ferocity.
As Stravinsky judged it: ‘this absolutely contemporary piece of music that will be contemporary forever’.
See all events in the Brodsky Quartet’s ‘Rush-Hour Lates’ series.
Please note this concert will last approximately 50 mins and there will be no interval.
The Brodsky Quartet performed the ‘Cavatina’ from Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat, Op. 130 at the 2017 Prinsengrachtconcert in Amsterdam: