Recital with the Merel Quartet

The String Quartet in A major, K. 464, is one of the six works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart that were published in the fall of 1785 by the Viennese music publisher Artaria - with a dedication by the composer to his teacher and friend Joseph Haydn. It cannot be ruled out that Mozart wanted to react with his quartets to Haydn's six string quartets, which had also been published by Artaria in 1782 as Opus 33. At the beginning of 1785, even before they were printed, Mozart performed the quartets for his mentor in private; at that time Haydn complained to Leopold Mozart, the composer's proud father, that he considered his son to be the greatest composer of his time because he had taste and "the greatest science of composition" - the A major quartet easily reveals the excellence of the famous movement.

Not a young genius like Mozart, but an old master was Antonín Dvořák when he sketched his String Quartet in F Major, Op. 96. "The American" it is called because, like the Ninth Symphony, it "comes from the New World." 51 years old and highly honored, Dvořák had traveled to New York in 1892 to take over as director of the National Conservatory there. During his first summer vacation in 1893, he put the quartet on paper within three weeks; in it, Dvořák's distinctly individual tone expands to include echoes of the music of America.

The program in detail

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
String quartet no. 18 in A major KV 464

• Allegro
• Menuetto - Trio
• Andante
• Allegro non troppo

Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)
String quartet no. 12 in F major op. 96, 
"American"

•  Allegro ma non troppo
•  Lento
• Molto vivace
• Finale. Vivace ma non troppo

The artists

Merel Quartett 

From Bach's "Art of the Fugue" to contemporary works and world premieres, the repertoire of the Zurich-based string quartet, founded in 2002, includes concerts throughout Europe and has appeared at the Salzburg Festival, the Kunstfest Weimar, the Lucerne Festival, the Gstaad Menuhin Festival and the Ittingen Whitsun Concerts. Over the years, the Merel Quartet's chamber music partners have included sopranos Ruth Ziesak and Juliane Banse, tenor Ian Bostridge, violist Diemut Poppen, cellist Natalia Gutman, pianists Alfred Brendel and Dénes Várjon, and composers Heinz Holliger and Jörg Widmann. The Merel Quartet is the organizer and host of the chamber music festival "Zwischentöne," which takes place annually in Engelberg in the fall and follows a motto each time, most recently the theme "Flight and Distance." Since 2022, the quartet has also organized the concert series "Merel Chamber Series" in Zurich, Lucerne and Triesen, featuring chamber music in classical and unusual formations. The Merel Quartet has released three albums to date and recorded works by Mozart, Felix Mendelssohn and Fanny Hensel, Robert Schumann, Leoš Janáče and the Swiss composer David Philip Hefti.
www.merelquartet.com

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Administrative notes

Cost (per person): CHF 60.-- (free for membership supporter and friend).
Discount for students and trainees (only with valid ID): CHF 10.--