United in spirit   MOZART, BEETHOVEN, SCHUMANN

Just how strongly composers can exert mutual influences, and just how significant role models are for the development of an entire genre will be demonstrated by Quatuor Mosaïques with a programme comprising Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s String Quartet in A major, K. 464, Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 5 in A major, Op. 18, and Robert Schumann’s String Quartet No. 3, Op. 41.

Haydn is regarded as the father of the classical string quartet, and Mozart dedicated his six Haydn Quartets to him, including K. 464. Mozart considered them the fruit of a long and laborious endeavour. Beethoven regarded Mozart’s A major quartet as a model for his own Op. 18 No. 5. He said: That is a work! Mozart was saying to the world here, Look what I could do, if only you were ready! Op. 18 No. 5 is a direct and conscious homage to Mozart. Schumann, as the youngest of the three, devoted himself in the spring of 1842 to a thorough study of the quartets by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, before sketching and finalising his Op. 41 in the space of six weeks and dedicating the works – with profound reverence – to his friend Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. They were to remain his only string quartets.

There can be few better interpreters of this music than Quatuor Mosaïques. Founded in 1985 by members of Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s Concentus Musicus Wien, the ensemble has been one of the leading practitioners of historical performance practice for the last forty years.

Quatuor Mosaïques
Erich Höbarth – Violin
Andrea Bischof – Violin
Anita Mitterer – Viola
Christophe Coin – Cello