Strijkkwintetten van Beethoven en Brahms door Quatuor Agate

String quintets by Beethoven and Brahms

Beethoven's only string quintet is Beethoven through and through: stormy and energetic. The piece inspired Schubert to compose his famous String Quintet in C , and Brahms used it as a model for his First String Quintet . After his Second String Quintet , Johannes Brahms drew a very thick double line: it would be his last piece before retirement, he wrote to his publisher. But do not expect melancholy and dark sounds; Brahms's good friend Elisabeth von Herzogenberg heard 'gentle spring breezes' in this quintet. 'Whoever can write something like that must be very happy; it is the work of a thirty-year-old!' she wrote to Brahms. Another friend suggested that Brahms subtitle the first movement 'Brahms in the Prater,' after the 'amusement park' in Vienna. Brahms was so pleased with his final work that he postponed his retirement by a few years after all.

Quatuor Agate

The Quatuor Agate studied in Berlin with Eberhard Feltz, in Paris—the city where it settled—with Mathieu Herzog, and in Munich with the Quatuor Ebène. The quartet took its name from Brahms' Second String Sextet , which Brahms composed for his love, Agathe von Siebold. The quartet has a special bond with the music of Brahms. This is undoubtedly audible in this concert.