CANCELLED: Hagen Quartett

»In a quartet you are constantly reflected four times over. And you need a lot of respect for one another. But that has a positive aspect as well: it’s a school for life.« With these words, viola player Veronika Hagen once described her good fortune at being a member of the Hagen Quartet, one of the world’s best string quartet formations. This exceptional ensemble from Salzburg has been delighting audiences all over the world for 40 years now. And to this day, the best-known Salzburg native of all, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, occupies a central position in the Hagens’ repertoire. Their 2006 box set of the complete Mozart string quartets was fêted by critics and fans the world over, and is still regarded as a reference recording.

No wonder, then, that the Hagen Quartet has chosen to celebrate its 40th birthday with music by its favourite composer. From the set of six epoch-making »Haydn Quartets« that Mozart dedicated to his model Joseph Haydn in 1785, we hear the highly experimental G major quartet and the A major piece with its contrapuntal emphasis. The Hagen-Mozart party is rounded off by the famous »Dissonance Quartet«, so-called on account of its harmonically daring opening.