Mozart Day 3 - String Quartets

‘Father of the string quartet’. This mark of respect has been regularly appended not to Mozart but instead Haydn, more with the intent to exalt than in an unquestionably correct way because, to quote László Somfai, “the string quartet is such a natural ‘invention’ that it does not have an inventor.” The respect for “Father” and the founder’s recognition extended to the genre of string quartet is still justified in having a part to play here because, after all, the two quartets featured on the programme of the chamber recital are from that series embracing six compositions in all which Mozart had published with a friendly and affectionate dedication to Joseph Haydn in 1785. And proof that collegial recognition and sympathy were mutual comes in the form of Haydn’s words as recounted by the proud father Leopold Mozart in the very year of the publication of the series: “I tell you before God, and as an honest man, your son is the greatest composer known to me by person and repute.”

The name (Dissonance quartet) derives from its famous and unusually slow introduction. Performers of this series-closing quartet are Pulzus String Quartet, formed in Lisbon in 1999, a chamber formation that are the pride of Hungarian classical music life. The fact is, Eszter Lesták Bedő and István Rajncsák as well as the other two members, MikolaRoman and cellist Mahdi Kousay, all play in Hungarian orchestras. The concert’s other quartet, which according to the evidence of the author’s manuscript was completed on New Year’s Eve 1782, and still by tradition bears the sobriquet ‘Spring’, is performed by Quartetto Speranza formed in 2018: first violinist László G. Horváth and his fellow artists (Tamás Szabó, Gergő Fajd and Péter Háry) regularly come together from different ensembles of Hungarian symphony and chamber orchestral life to play masterpieces of the string quartet literature.

Programme arranged in collaboration with Filharmónia Hungary.