Motus Quartet Presented by Liszt Academy

The concert opens with one of the best-loved string quartets of the Viennese Classical era, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Hunt” Quartet, completed in Vienna in 1784. The piece – the fourth of the six quartets dedicated to Joseph Haydn – takes its nickname from the spirited, fanfare-like motif that evokes the sound of hunting horns at the start of the first movement. Next comes a leap across time and style to the early 20th century with the quartet by Anton Webern, a student of Arnold Schönberg and a prominent member of the Second Viennese School, composed in 1909. Though its movements are strikingly brief, often lasting only a minute or two, each is a concentrated burst of emotion, compressing the full range of late-Romantic intensity into miniature form. After the intermission, the program returns to the First Viennese School with Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 127 – the first of his celebrated late quartets. Completed in 1825, this four-movement masterpiece explores new spiritual and emotional depths, marking one of the most profound achievements not only of Beethoven’s late period but of the entire string quartet repertoire.