Review: Oberlin Artist Recital Series: Leipzig String Quartet in Finney Chapel (March 3)

by Nicholas Jones

 

The Leipzig String Quartet, founded some 25 years ago by members of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, has a venerable history – remarkably, only one personnel change in that time. They are remarkable in particular for the breadth of their repertoire. According to their website, they have released “almost 70 recordings, spanning from Mozart to Cage and including the complete works of Brahms, Mozart, Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Schubert and the complete Second Viennese School.”

 

Currently the Leipzig are on an American tour with all of Beethoven’s quartets in their suitcases: for their upcoming recital at the University of Florida, the audience is invited to vote in advance which three Beethoven quartets the group will perform. 

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Preview: Oberlin Artist Recital Series: a conversation with Leipzig String Quartet cellist Matthias Moosdorf

by Mike Telin

With all of the exceptional repertoire to choose from, why is it that an all-Beethoven string quartet recital still excites audiences and players? “The quartet has performed a lot of complete cycles of composers such as Mendelssohn and Brahms or Mozart, and if you compare the possibilities, you have to realize that Beethoven is the top of the top,” says Leipzig String Quartet cellist Matthias Moosdorf. The quartet, who are currently touring seventeen Beethoven quartets, will perform a concert on Sunday, March 3 at 4:00 pm in Finney Chapel at Oberlin as part of the Oberlin Artist Recital Series.

“You can combine any piece with another and it works perfectly, especially when taken from the early, from the middle and from the late periods’” Moosdorf said in a phone conversation from Leipzig. “But it doesn’t matter which quartets you choose because in the end, the result will be a fantastic evening.” Moosdorf will be joined by his Leipzig colleagues Stefan Arzberger & Tilman Büning, violins, and violist Ivo Bauer, in performances of the Quartet in B-flat, op. 18, no. 6, “La Maliconia”,Quartet in f, op. 95,“Serioso” and the Quartet in E-flat, op. 127.