Hagen Quartett © Harald Hoffmann
Hagen Quartett
Sunday
3
December
2023
19:30 – ca. 21:30
Mozart-Saal
Performers
Hagen Quartett
Lukas Hagen, Violine
Rainer Schmidt, Violine
Veronika Hagen, Viola
Clemens Hagen, Violoncello
Programme
Joseph Haydn
Streichquartett G-Dur Hob. III/75 (1797)
Béla Bartók
Streichquartett Nr. 3 Sz 85 (1927)
***
Ludwig van Beethoven
Streichquartett B-Dur op. 130 (mit Große Fuge B-Dur op. 133) (1825)
Subscription series
Hagen Quartett
Presented by
Wiener Konzerthausgesellschaft
Masters and patrons
Beethoven's enigmatic last quartets, Haydn's »Erdődy Quartets«, which are among the best-known genre contributions of the »father of the string quartet«, and key works of classical modernism characterize the Hagen Quartet's concerts this season. In the first concert in early December, these include the first of Haydn's quartets, Op. 76, commissioned by Count Joseph Erdődy in 1797; the last of the three quartets commissioned from Beethoven by Russian Prince Nikolai Gallitzin in 1822 but never paid for, namely the colossal String Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 130, with its original finale, the Grand Fugue, Op. 133, composed in 1825 and 1826; and Bartók's 3rd String Quartet, composed a little over a century later. The latter was written in 1927, possibly under the impression of a performance of Alban Berg's »Lyric Suite« the year before, and is considered the most tightly constructed, concise, and succinct of the six string quartets by this grand master of modernism. Together with Alfredo Casella, Bartók won a US$6,000 composition prize with this work from the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia, which had already been founded in 1820. All three works thus show how private patronage can have a lasting influence on music history.