Hagen Quartett © Harald Hoffmann
Hagen Quartett / Gautier Capuçon
Thursday
23
March
2023
19:30 – ca. 21:50
Mozart-Saal
Performers
Hagen Quartett
Lukas Hagen, Violine
Rainer Schmidt, Violine
Veronika Hagen, Viola
Clemens Hagen, Violoncello
Gautier Capuçon, Violoncello
Programme
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Streichquartett B-Dur K 458 »Jagd-Quartett« (1784)
Streichquartett Es-Dur K 421b (1783)
***
Franz Schubert
Streichquintett C-Dur D 956 (1828)
Subscription series
Hagen Quartett
Presented by
Wiener Konzerthausgesellschaft
A small format, but great music
This is how this chamber music evening could be summarized in a few words. It begins with two compositions from Mozart's quartets dedicated to Haydn. The so-called »Hunting Quartet« begins, like a divertimento, in lively 6/8 time, as Haydn also used it in his cycles, Opera 9 and 33, which were so decisive for the genre. It was the quartet in E-flat major that prompted Haydn to pay the compliment so often quoted. He attested to Leopold Mozart that his son possessed »the greatest compositional science«. Inspired by his great role model Haydn, Mozart thus created his own, unrivaled quartet style.
In the second half of the concert, an undisputed solitaire of chamber music is on the program: the Hagen Quartet, expanded into a quintet by none other than Gautier Capuçon, interprets the String Quintet by Franz Schubert, written a few months before his death. Not only the unusual instrumentation with two cellos, its length as well as the widely known Adagio movement make this composition something special. According to music critic Joachim Kaiser, »all people to whom music means something bow down« to this swan song.