Chamber Music

Artists

Jerusalem String Quartet

Alexander Pavlovsky, violin

Sergei Bresler, violin

Ori Kam, viola

Kyril Zlotnikov, cello

Programme

Viennese Quartets

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

String Quartet No. 21 in D major, KV 575 (1789)

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

String Quartet No. 11 in F minor, Op. 95 “Serioso” (1810)

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, D 810, “Death and the Maiden” (1824)

Four Reasonable People

Of the different forms of writing string quartets that were developed throughout the 18th century, the winner, the one that had the most success, was the Viennese, which was based on the overlapping of the four instruments on an equal footing, four voices in a dialogue among them, which represented the revival of the spirit of ancient polyphony and that was defined by Goethe in an accurate definition: “A conversation between four reasonable people.” If Haydn was the one who gave the basic shape to this style of writing quartets, his most distinguished followers are represented in this concert: Mozart with the first of his last series, the three Prussian Quartets; Beethoven, with one of his essential works from the intermediate period, the Quartet Serioso; Schubert, in short, with one of the most immortal works in the history of music, Death and the Maiden.