Schoenberg, Berg & Kortekaas

Quatuor Diotima breathes contemporary music. The French quartet has a special connection with Arnold Schoenberg: several years ago, at the Muziekgebouw, Diotima played all four of the great innovator’s string quartets in one weekend. This time they combine Schönberg’s Third String Quartet with the legendary Lyric Suite by his star student Alban Berg. And they will premiere the very first string quartet by Bram Kortekaas, one of the interesting Dutch composers of his generation.

Schoenberg wrote his Third String Quartet in 1927, when he had already developed his twelve-tone technique. He modelled it on a quartet by Schubert, although the sound world is obviously completely different. Alban Berg, Schoenberg’s student, who years prior had written the very first atonal string quartet, composed his evocative Lyric Suite in the same period. With its expressive melodies and dramatic sweep, this string quartet evokes the spirit of opera, as noted by some musicologists, including Adorno. Decades after the composer’s death, and the death of his mistress, researchers learned that Berg’s work was inspired by his secret love affair with the wife of a friend.