Vertavo String Quartet

Since its inception in 1984, the Norwegian Vertavo String Quartet has established itself as one of the top quartets in the world. The quartet has its own concert subscription in Oslo and tours Europe, Japan and the US. The quartet has performed on concert stages including Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Barbican and Kings Place in London, and has also appeared at the annual Aldeburgh Festival.

Here, the ensemble performs music by three composers who have all been pioneers in various ways. Joseph Haydn experimented with form and content and developed both the symphony and the string quartet; Elfrida Andrée was a female progenitor of nineteenth century Sweden and Beethoven blasted through the traditional frameworks of the string quartet.

When Haydn planned a new journey to England in the early 1790s, he composed a handful of symphonies, music for piano and the six quartets dedicated to Count Anton Apponyi. This music, with its exquisite balance and extroverted energy, comprises a highlight of Viennese classical music.

Elfrida Andrée composed chamber music and symphonic pieces, and was active as an orchestra conductor. The fact that her major role models were Beethoven, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Schubert can be heard in this marvellous quartet from 1887. Its world premiere was given by four female string musicians in 1895, which was the first time in the Nordic region that a string quartet composed by a woman was performed by female musicians.

Beethoven’s string quartet, Opus 131, is from his later period. It is as if in the music, he is seeking freedom for thought and soul. Perhaps this is also why this piece speaks to us so powerfully, with its warmth, imagination and intensity, across all historical barriers.