Kosmos Kammermusik: Belcea Quartet

Beethoven composed 16 String Quartets over approximately a quarter century, further developing the genre from the succession of Haydn to works reaching far into the future. In Beethoven's Year 2027, both Belcea Quartet and Quatuor Ébène will perform all Quartets – not chronologically ordered, but so that different creative phases stand side by side. In this concert, the Belcea Quartet will present the early G-major Quartet alongside two very different late Quartets: The nearly 40-minute long Quartet No. 14 has at least 600 pages of sketch material – a clear indication of how intensely Beethoven worked on this seven-movement work. Quartet No. 16 follows formally and in length more the earlier norms, but it continually breaks them with its musical language.