Chiaroscuro Quartet: Endless enthusiasm for playing

 

Screen time or Haydn time? What a question! Haydn, of course. At least on the first weekend in July 2025, because you'll want more than anything to be unavailable for a few hours. The Chiaroscuro Quartet will cast a spell over you with its Haydn programme. You will be fascinated by how much colour and emotional power lies hidden in Haydn's quartets when the Chiaroscuro Quartet tackles them with gut strings, classical bows and historically informed playing. The award-winning ensemble creates vivid aural images in which the music begins to pulsate as if it were made of flesh and blood. Sharp attacks and gentle whispers, captivating contrasts of bright and dark that will make your ears ache for more.

Shock to the ears?
"We blindly trust each other. Together we are in search of a wide range of colours and emotions," says violinist Alina Ibragimova. She founded the quartet while studying at the Royal College of Music in London. The international response to the boundless joy of Ibragimova, Charlotte Saluste-Bridoux (violin), Emilie Hörnlund (viola) and Claire Thirion (cello) at their performances speaks for itself: the British newspaper The Observer described their playing as a "shock to the ears of the very best kind."

Bold harmony, intricate fugue
The Chiaroscuro Quartet's programming is clever. It juxtaposes Haydn's works with Beethoven's Razumovsky quartets, as well as excerpts from Bach's ‘Art Of The Fugue’, Beethoven's ‘Grosse Fuge’ and - as the grand finale - Schubert's Quartet ‘Death And The Maiden’. The weekend promises to be an extremely rich musical experience: the works are written within a narrow time span, while at the same time opening up a complex cosmos full of depth.

Beethoven composed the three Opus 59 quartets on commission from Count Kirill Razumovsky. He was a Russian patron of the arts and an admirer of Beethoven. These pieces captivate with their bold harmonies and dynamic contrasts. The elaborate fugue at the end of the third quartet brings the trilogy to a culmination. The slow movement of No. 3, reminds of Slavic epics and made this work a favourite of the public even in Beethoven's time.

Centrepieces of the quartet literature
In Ernen, the four musicians will perform quartets from Joseph Haydn's Opus 20 (‘Sun Quartets’). These are centrepieces of the quartet literature. Haydn completed these six string quartets in 1772, when Beethoven was just learning to walk. A very special work was composed around ten years later - the ‘7 Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross’. It was composed for a devotional ritual on Good Friday in southern Spain, during which the windows of the church were draped with black cloths so that listeners could fully immerse themselves in the scene of Jesus' death. The Chiaroscuro Quartet opens its 7-part concert series in Ernen with this ritual music.

But back to the initial question. Haydn time or screen time? You'll want your screen for some moments: When you'll be still drunk on Haydn's sounds, then reach for your mobile phone and tell everyone: the Chiaroscuro Quartet is not leaving immediately after its first concert with Haydn's ‘Seven Last Words’. They are staying in the Musikdorf for another six concerts. The weekend is an unrivalled opportunity for lovers of breathtaking chamber music - and for those curious to discover a new side to quartet playing.

Chamber Music Compact | 4–6 July 2025 | Seven concerts in three days

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Written in December 2024, by Marianne Mühlemann (translated by Jonathan Inniger)