Artemis Quartett
Barber / Britten / Schubert
The Artemis Quartett has long been in the global premier league of string quartets. In 2019 they are celebrating their 30-year anniversary – reason enough to come to the Elbphilharmonie to perform three undisputed highlights of their genre. However, far from being cheerful, the music chosen to mark the anniversary is actually deeply yet beautifully sorrowful.
Samuel Barber’s »Adagio for Strings« is one of the best-known classical music works of all time. The piece is often performed on the world’s concert stages, and its haunting emotionality has also seen it used in several films and TV programmes (e.g. »Amélie«, »Saving Private Ryan«, »The Simpsons«), on various pop songs and on significant historic occasions such as the funerals of John F. Kennedy and Albert Einstein.
No less expressive is Franz Schubert’s pain-filled String Quartet in D minor, in which he reuses his own song »Death and the Maiden«. The agonizing physical, emotional and material situation in which Schubert found himself at the time of composition can be felt in every note.
Performers
Artemis Quartett
Vineta Sareika violin
Anthea Kreston violin
Gregor Sigl viola
Eckart Runge violoncello
Programme
Samuel Barber
Adagio for Strings, Op. 11
Benjamin Britten
Streichquartett Nr. 2 C-Dur op. 36
– Interval –
Franz Schubert
Streichquartett d-Moll D 810 »Der Tod und das Mädchen«
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