BELCEA QUARTET. HAYDN, LIGETI AND DVORAK
String quartets are the most iconic opuses in terms of chamber music, but few string quartets manage to distinguish themselves among the many, many string quartets that exist in the world. For more than 20 years, the Belcea Quartet has sparkled as one of the most outstanding ensembles in the world. Its main trump card is the ability to discover the traditional and rich genre of quartets as a living and developing organism. Based on London, the quartet commissions new opuses and learns classical compositions as if they were acquaintances of composers from the past. The musicians directly take a deep look at the deepest essence of the music that they are performing. These discoveries are assisted by the characteristics of the musicians, and the balance among them ensures a vivid and unrepeatable sound. The driving force behind the Belcea Quartet is its founder, the temperamental Romanian violinist Corina Belcea, who ensures the flourishing of the philosophically spiritual Polish violist Krzysztof Chorzelski, the touchingly serious French violinist Axel Schacher, and his compatriot, the humour-filled cellist Antoine Lederlin. Equally colourful and diverse is the repertoire, with one of the very first string quartets by the Czech romanticist Dvořák, as inspired by the “father of the quartet,” Haydn, as well as an early masterpiece produced by Ligeti on the basis of folk music from Hungary.
Programme
Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) String Quartet Op. 20 n° 4
György Ligeti (1923-2006) String Quartet n° 1 "Metamorphoses nocturnes"
Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) String Quartet op. 96 "American"
Participants
Belcea Quartet:
Corina Belcea, violin I,
Axel Schacher, violin II,
Krzysztof Chorzelski, viola
Antoine Lederlin, cello