Elias String Quartet

String Quartet in G major Op.18 No.2
String Quartet in E flat major Op.127
String Quartet in F major Op. 59 No.1, ‘Rasumovsky’

This is the start of a two year project at the Brighton Festival in which the Elias Quartet are fulfilling a long-held dream to perform all of Beethoven’s string quartets as a cycle. Refusing to be hidebound by convention, the Quartet brings to Beethoven’s masterpieces the fresh approach that has made it one of the most exciting young ensembles to emerge in recent years.

Each of the concerts in this Festival’s series represents the three major periods of Beethoven’s quartet-composing career, taking a work from the early, middle and late quartets. This opening concert charts his progression from the classically rooted Op. 18 No. 2, inspired by Haydn, ‘the father of the string quartet’, to the first of his late quartets. It is the perfect introduction to the richness and sophistication of Beethoven’s quartets.

The Op. 18 quartet is known as the ‘Komplimentier- Quartett’, which translates charmingly as ‘the quartet of bows and curtseys’; it conjures the world of 18th- century courtly elegance. By the time of the Op.127 quartet, Beethoven had made the genre his own. Bridging the two is the first of the middle quartets, written for Beethoven’s patron Prince Rasumovsky.

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