Chiaroscuro Quartet

Bach, Haydn and Beethoven

The Chiaroscuro Quartet perform landmark works by Bach, Haydn and Beethoven.

For over twenty years, the Chiaroscuro Quartet has been changing the way we hear great music. The group, which plays on historic instruments strung with animal gut instead of steel, is known for finding deep contrasts in music we thought we knew. Its name comes from the artistic technique of exploiting the very same contrasts in drawing and painting.

After two performances with Leif Ove Andsnes at the Universitetsaulaen, the Chiaroscuro Quartet comes to Håkonshallen to play pivotal works of Baroque, Classical and Romantic chamber music.

Haydn’s quartet nicknamed ‘The Joke’ is known for its playful twists and turns. The Art of Fugue is Bach’s deep exploration of counterpoint. Beethoven changed the scale and demands of chamber music with the emotional extremities explored in the first of his ‘Razumovsky’ quartets.

Image: Chiaroscuro Quartet. Photo: Joss McKinley

Contributors

• Chiaroscuro Quartet
  Alina Ibragimova violin
  Charlotte Saluste-Bridoux violin
  Emilie Hörnlund viola
  Claire Thirion cello

Works

• Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
  From Die Kunst der Fuge, BWV 1080.
  The Art of Fugue
  1. Contrapunctus I
  4. Contrapunctus IV
  9. Contrapunctus IX

• Joseph Haydn (1732–1809)
  String Quartet no. 30 in E flat major, op. 33 no. 2. Hob. III:38. «The Joke»
  1. Allegro moderato
  2. Scherzo. Allegro
  3. Largo sostenuto
  4. Finale. Presto

• Interval

• Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
  String Quartet no. 7 in F major, op. 59 no. 1
  1. Allegro
  2. Allegretto vivace e sempre scherzando
  3. Adagio molto e mesto
  4. Thème russe. Allegro

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