First Performance at IBK Chamber Hall, Seoul Arts Center on July 5
Five Concerts Until February Next Year... 17 Works Including "Grosse Fuge"
The Abel Quartet, a string quartet, is embarking on an ambitious journey to perform all 16 of Beethoven's string quartets over approximately seven months.
According to the concert planning company Mok Production, the Abel Quartet will hold the first concert of their complete Beethoven string quartet cycle at the IBK Chamber Hall of the Seoul Arts Center on July 5. The Abel Quartet plans to perform all 16 of Beethoven's string quartets, plus the Grosse Fuge, for a total of 17 works, across five concerts through February next year.
At the first concert on July 5, they will perform four pieces: Beethoven's String Quartets No. 1, No. 6, No. 11, and No. 12. The remaining four concerts are scheduled for September 20, November 21, February 5, and February 7 of next year. All concerts will be held at the IBK Chamber Hall of the Seoul Arts Center.
Abel Quartet. From the left, Suhyun Park, Hamun Park, Hyeongjun Cho, Eunsol Yoon Photo by Mok Production, (c) Shinjoong Kim
Composed of violinists Eunsol Yoon and Suhyun Park, violist Hamun Park, and cellist Hyeongjun Cho, the Abel Quartet marks its 13th anniversary this year. In 2015, they became the first Korean string quartet to win first prize at the 6th International Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Competition in Vienna, Austria. In 2023, their 10th anniversary, they released their first full-length album "In nomine Domini" (In the Name of the Lord), featuring four Haydn string quartets, recorded in Vienna.
Last year, the Abel Quartet successfully completed a full cycle of Mendelssohn's string quartets and received the Porsche Frontier Award in the music category at the 3rd Seoul Arts Awards. As Haydn specialists who have also mastered the Mendelssohn repertoire, the Abel Quartet has spanned both Classical and Romantic repertoires and is now taking on a new challenge with the complete Beethoven string quartets.
Beethoven composed 16 string quartets (17 if the Grosse Fuge is included). These are generally divided into early (six works, Op. 18), middle (three "Rasumovsky" quartets, Op. 59; "Harp" quartet, Op. 74; and "Serioso" quartet, Op. 95), and late periods (Op. 127, 130-133, and 135). The early quartets, written in a classical style influenced by Haydn and Mozart, begin to reveal Beethoven's experimental approach, such as adopting the four-movement structure and contrasting forms like minuet and scherzo, which were not commonly used before. The middle quartets show greater formal freedom and expansion from classical conventions, with larger scale and more adventurous harmonies that highlight Beethoven's individuality. The late quartets are characterized by explosive emotional expression and intensified formal originality, demonstrating how Beethoven opened a completely new horizon for the string quartet genre.
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