Mendelssohn, Haydn, Mozart: String Quartets

The string quartet, which established itself in the second half of the 18th century as a testing ground for composers, is the central formation of chamber music: with only four instruments, everything depends on the ability to write and on the enhancement of the individual voices.

At the side of Haydn, “father” of the quartet, the programme brings Mozart and Mendelssohn into dialogue: the former more light and brilliant, the latter more intense and lyrical. A journey between classicism and romanticism, on historical instruments, to rediscover the sound essence of the era.

The string quartet can be considered the principal formation of chamber music, ever since the writing for four solo strings became the real test on which the leading composers measured themselves in the second half of the 18th century.The reason is as simple as it is obvious: when faced with meagre instrumental resources (when compared to the timbral and expressive possibilities that the orchestra can offer) and fixed (again, in comparison with orchestral writing, it is evident how in favour of the latter there is a possibility of a more orchestral composition), the solo strings became the true test-bed on…