The Lydian String Quartet: Beethoven+ Concert 6

Beethoven: String Quartet in A major, Op. 18, No. 5

Lera Auerbach: Quartet No. 10 “Frozen Dreams”

Beethoven: String Quartet in E minor, Op. 59, No. 2

Beethoven’s Op. 18, No. 5, pays direct homage to Mozart.  Loaded with lilting melodic invention and humor, this early work is a wonderful foil for the taut agitation of his second Razumovsky quartet, which features one of his greatest slow movements.  Beethoven’s student, Carl Czerny, famously wrote that this music came to him “while contemplating the starry sky and thinking of the music of the spheres.”  Framed by these two works is Lera Auerbach’s “Frozen Dreams,” her contribution to a joint commission of works inspired by the four seasons.