With Malinconia, the Quartet imagined that the first great string quartet composers had modern clarinets. Would Mozart have continued to write for clarinet ensembles after his Adagio in B-flat major k 411 for 2 clarinets and 3 basset horns? How would Beethoven have taken up clarinets if the bass clarinet had already existed?
This is the subject of this program in which you will hear, along with the Eight Sketches, Mozart’s 15th quartet in D minor and Beethoven’s quartet opus 18 n°6 called “Malinconia”.
The Quatuor Anches Hantées gives us a delicate interpretation of this triptych. The melancholic turns of phrase are reflected in a playing marked by the happiness of being sad and melting into a dark joy.