“Virile, clean, surging with expression, the Cuarteto Casals’ sound is so arresting that any scientist would be itching to put it under the microscope. What would be discovered?” – The Guardian

Now in its 28^th year, the arresting Spanish ensemble Cuarteto Casals returns to Duke with a program that traces a powerful arc through the stages of a composer’s life.

The Quartet specializes in under-represented Spanish repertoire, and they begin with a quartet from Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga. His three delightful string quartets, written at age 16 (1824), were the only works published before his early death at 19. From Arriaga’s astonishing early talent, we move to Shostakovich’s Third String Quartet, written in the shadow of the Second World War. It veers between playfulness and severity – characteristic of the composer’s conflicted mid-life period under Soviet scrutiny.

Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 13 reflects the boldness of his later years. It is paired here with its original final movement, the epic Grosse Fuge, initially deemed so fiendishly difficult that a new, lighter, more conventional finale was written. Today’s audiences are fortunate to hear the full original piece in the hands of this astonishing ensemble.

Program

Arriaga: Quartet #3, E-flat Major
Shostakovich: Quartet #3, F Major, Op. 73
Beethoven: Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 130 With the “Grosse Fugue”