Chiaroscuro Quartet

Part of the series «Chamber Music Compact» – Chiaroscuro Quartet plays 7 concerts in 3 days.

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck: Fantasia Cromatica SwWV 258

Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartet E flat major op. 127

Duration approx. 60 minutes

Just like Johann Sebastian Bach, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck's fame was based on his exceptional skills as an improviser on the organ. The Fantasia Cromatica is a four-part fugue with a chromatically descending theme, which appears in half tempo in the middle section, in double tempo towards the end and even briefly in quadruple tempo at the very end. Sweelincks is therefore regarded as Bach's musical ancestor.

Beethoven's String Quartet op. 127 has a lyrical character. Composed as the first of three works commissioned by the Russian Prince Nikolai Galitzin, its mild, friendly spirit makes it an exception among Beethoven's late string quartets. Its centrepiece, the slow 2nd movement, has been described as an expression of a «state of perfect elysian calm» (Goldschmidt) and a «miracle of beauty» (Kerman).

Chiaroscuro Quartet:

Alina Ibragimova, violin

Charlotte Saluste-Bridoux, violin

Emilie Hörnlund, viola

Claire Thirion, violoncello

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Read about Chamber Music Compact 2023 with the Chiaroscuro Quartet