BEETHOVEN

L. V. BEETHOVEN, String Quartet No. 1 in F major op. 18 no. 1
        String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat major op. 130
        Grosse Fuge in B-flat major op. 133

The evening with the Belcea Quartet is dedicated to Beethoven, serving as a prologue to the 2027 celebrations marking the bicentenary of the death of the genius from Bonn. Of the six String Quartets Op. 18, dedicated to Prince Franz Joseph Lobkowitz, we will hear No. 1 in F major, written around 1799 and shaped by the formal structures of Haydn and Mozart, while already revealing the characteristics that would become distinctive of Beethoven’s mature style.
In the second part, the quartet will perform No. 13 in B-flat major, Op. 130 together with the Grosse Fuge, Op. 133, which originally served as the finale of Op. 130. This choice allows the audience to experience the vast musical fresco composed by the Maestro in 1825 for Prince Galitzin, and which—due to editorial and practical reasons, namely its extreme technical difficulty—led to the exclusion of the Grosse Fuge from Op. 130 (replaced by an Allegro finale).
The Belcea Quartet is one of the most sought-after string quartets on the international scene; founded in 1994 under the leadership of violinist Corina Belcea, it quickly established itself as a benchmark in chamber music, both in concert performance and in its extensive recording activity.