A Musical Gift: The Borusan String Quartet

October 23, 2024
20.00
Tickets from Passo.com

Süreyya Opera House, Bahariye Caddesi 29, Kadıköy, 34710 Istanbul

---

The works to be performed by the Borusan String Quartet in this concert are Robert Schumann’s String Quartet No 1 in A minor and Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No 2 in A minor.

Schumann’s four-movement String Quartet No 1 in A minor, Opus 41 No 1, was written in 1842. The work was dedicated to Mendelssohn, a close friend of the composer’s. Kai Christiansen, writing on the ‘Earsense’ website, tells us that Schumann’s string quartets ‘are particularly engaging as ‘missing links’ between the quartets of Mendelssohn and Brahms … In between, Schumann simultaneously evokes Mozart, Beethoven and Mendelssohn while, in moments, suggesting the future voices of Brahms and early Schoenberg, both of whom admired Schumann’s music.’ There are clear references to the late quartets of Beethoven, particularly in the introduction to the first movement and the Adagio third movement. The finale, meanwhile, is remarkable for its surging rhythms. Here is the full article.

Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No 2 in A minor, meanwhile, was written in 1827, when the composer was 18 years old – a mere few months, in fact, after the death of Beethoven. It is not surprising, therefore, that this work should show the influence of Beethoven’s late string quartets, which many of his contemporaries found indecipherable; Mendelssohn, however, was fascinated by them. Wikipedia tells us the following: ‘… Mendelssohn’s quartet takes the implications of Beethoven’s late quartets – above all their suggestions of cyclic formal organisation – and develops them in radically new directions. As Benedict Taylor writes in a very detailed analysis, this quartet ‘is the most thorough-going essay in cyclic form, both by Mendelssohn and by any composer to that time, until the late works of Franck at the very least’.’

Performances by the Borusan String Quartet are not to be missed.