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Harmony by four stringed instruments... meet Quartet 21.
It could be a marriage made in heaven, creating the most perfect harmony.
To this end, communication plays a key part.
Quartet 21 consists of career musicians, including a professor involved with Japan's Kirishima
International Music Festival and the concertmaster of
the Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra.
Opening Quartet 21's 40th concert: Franz Schubert's 'Quartettsatz in C minor.'
As an unfinished quartet, the piece is only seven minutes long.
Still, it's a highly-challenging, powerful movement.
Also on the program: Giuseppe Verdi's sole surviving chamber music work 'String Quartet
in E minor.'
Verdi wrote the piece in 1873 during a delay in his production of "Aida" in Naples, Italy.
It's an elegant piece on a par with his opera masterpieces.
Also featured: Ludwig van Beethoven's 'String Quartet Number 15.'
The
German genius wrote the piece just two years prior to his death, while he was totally deaf.
Perhaps for this reason, its structure is complex.
At the time, Beethoven was also suffering from what he thought was a fatal illness.
By the third movement, however, Beethoven recovered... and wrote it as a song thanking
god.
During his final years, Beethoven wrote very complex works... receiving high praise from
critics, while requiring musicality from musicians.
Four virtuosos fine-tuning their art to create harmony... they're Quartet 21.