Ébène Kvartetten opens its traversal of Beethoven's string quartets with the first set he published, Opus 18. The concert begins with Quartets No. 4 and No. 5, written between 1798 and 1800 in the composer's early period, when he was working firmly within the Viennese classical style. The set is dedicated to Prince Franz Joseph Maximilian von Lobkowitz, a music lover who became Beethoven's patron.
No. 4 is the only quartet in the set written in a minor key, and it shares the intensity and stormy energy of Beethoven's C minor works, including his Fifth Symphony. The ensemble, founded in 1999 at the conservatoire in Boulogne-Billancourt, has performed at Wigmore Hall in London and Carnegie Hall in New York. The following evening at the same venue, the quartet continues the cycle with Parts 2 and 3.
