9 BEETHOVEN LATE QUARTETS 3 [BELCEA QUARTET]

Mozart: Quintet in C, K.515
Beethoven: Quartet in C#m, Op.131

Belcea Quartet
Diyang Mei, viola

In this concert, we reach the heart of Beethoven’s late quartets, both numerically (it is the third of five) and in stature. It was reputedly Beethoven’s own favourite, and a work that left all who heard it in awe. Figures of the stature of Wagner, T.S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf are among the many who were both inspired and intimidated by its astounding achievement. Schubert reputedly said ‘After this, what is left for us to write?’ Certainly, it is unlike anything they would have heard before. The Belcea Quartet are joined by Diyang Mei to open the concert with Mozart’s sublime Quintet in C.