In Depth - Cuarteto Casals Program

On the Cuarteto Casals program Wednesday, November 13, 2024 • 7:30 p.m. Memorial Hall:

Quartet in D Major, K. 499 “Hoffmeister” (1786) ………………………………Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)

Quartet No. 2 in A Major, Op. 68 (1944) ………………………………………….Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975)

Quartet No. 15 in A Minor, Op. 132 (1823–25)………………………………….Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)

ABOUT CUARTETO CASALS

There are a handful of superb European quartet ensembles that don’t spend enough time in America. Madrid-based Cuarteto Casals, Spain’s finest, is one. We are excited to present Cuarteto Casals in a long overdue Cincinnati debut.

Gramophone named the Casals’ most recent Mozart recording:
- one of the Best Albums of 2021,
- one of the 50 finest Mozart recordings ever, and
- it’s recording of choice—above all others—for Mozart’s Quartet No. 19, “Dissonance.”

Founded in 1997, the Casals quickly won the London and Brahms-Hamburg quartet competitions. For more than a quarter century since, they have performed in Europe’s foremost concert halls: the Berlin Philharmonie, Vienna’s Konzerthaus and Musikverien, and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, as well as Tokyo’s Suntory Hall and New York’s Carnegie Hall.

THE PROGRAM

Quartet in D Major, K. 499 “Hoffmeister” (1786)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)

Unlike Mozart’s famous sets―e.g., his six “Haydn” or three “Prussian” string quartets―the “Hoffmeister” stands alone. One of his “true greats,” this is a prime example of the composer’s extraordinary ability to interweave exuberance and seriousness.

Quartet No. 2 in A Major, Op. 68 (1944)
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975)

Shostakovich’s second string quartet was written more than 20 years after he entered the Petrograd Conservatory and six years after he wrote the first of what were intended to be 24 quartets in all 24 major and minor keys. Many regard the fifteen he completed as among the most remarkable achievements for this instrumentation after Beethoven’s.

These quartets intimate character is often contrasted by critics and musicologists with that of the 15 Shostakovich symphonies, spectacles written for public consumption, sometimes reflecting historical events. Russia’s Beethoven Quartet premiered all but the first and last. The Glazunov Quartet premiered the first in 1936.

Quartet No. 15 in A Minor, Op. 132 (1823–25)
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)

Beethoven’s Op. 132 was the 13th of his quartets written and the 15th published, one of the “Late Quartets,” now regarded as the greatest achievement for this form. It was originally intended to have four movements, but the composer became seriously ill during its composition. Once recovered, Beethoven added a fifth movement, the third in order, in gratitude for his recovery, titling it A Convalescent’s Holy Song of Thanksgiving to the Deity, in the Lydian Mode.

Cuarteto Casals performs these works:

Wednesday, November 13, 2024 • 7:30 p.m.
Memorial Hall