Reflections: Schubert & Beethoven

Purcell Fantasia upon one note
Schubert Quartettsatz
Caroline Shaw Entr’acte
Beethoven String Quartet No. 9 in C Major

Four NZSO players whisk us through the ages via the most classic of chamber music ensembles – the string quartet.

Curated by Assistant Principal Second Violin Jessica Oddie, this programme takes us back to the Baroque period, with Purcell’s fascinating Fantasia upon one note (originally written for Baroque viols). Schubert’s Quartettsatz, really the first movement of a work he never finished, represents Schubert at the beginning of his mature period. Meanwhile, Beethoven’s Quartet in C Major, the last of his magisterial Rasumovsky quartets, shows the composer in full heroic stride. Its fugal finale alone, sensational to listen to and technically flawless, is enough to have cemented Beethoven’s reputation as a truly virtuosic composer.

Sandwiched between these two Classical masterworks is Caroline Shaw’s Entr’acte, which tips its hat to the Baroque sounds of Purcell while also showing what a string quartet can do with 21st-century style and flair.