Hong Kong Arts Festival “Dazzle —Esmé Quartet Recital"Hong Kong Arts Festival

Grand emotions on an intimate scale, from the winner of the Wigmore Hall Quartet Competition

Born in South Korea and now based in Germany, the four award-winning young musicians of the Esmé Quartet have won praise wherever they have played—including at major international festivals such as Lucerne and Aix-en-Provence, and in prestigious chamber music venues such as London’s Wigmore Hall, where they won First Prize at the 2018 International String Quartet Competition.

The Esmé Quartet takes its name from an old French word meaning “being loved”, and In its debut Hong Kong recital, the Esmé Quartet will explore the European classical quartet tradition: Haydn is the benchmark for any great string quartet—the “father of the string quartet”, whose “Joke” quartet reimagines music as a conversation: witty, philosophical, tender and (believe it or not) outrageously funny.

It will then visit 19th-century Russia, where chemist-turned-composer Borodin poured his gift for melody into his luscious Second String Quartet—a work so tuneful that at least two of its movements have been turned into hit pop songs. But the Esmé Quartet plays the original version, before unleashing the storm of Schubert’s mighty “Death and the Maiden” quartet, a chamber work on the scale of a symphony, based on a doom-laden song of dark and lyrical passion. With music as powerful as this, it only takes four players to create a whole universe of emotion. Expect a performance charged with all the “depth and maturity” (Süddeutsche Zeitung) and “unexpected allure” (Diapason) that has led critics to praise the Esmé Quartet as one of the finest chamber ensembles of our times.

Repertoire
Haydn | String Quartet in E-flat major, Op 33, No 2, "The Joke"
Borodin | String Quartet No 2 in D major
Schubert | String Quartet No 14 in D minor, D810, "Death and the Maiden"

- Approx. 2 hrs incl. one interval