string quartet concerts – The Joachim Quartet: Documentation

The “Conservative” Joachim Quartet

By admin | September 20, 2018April 13, 2019 by admin

1870s Reviews of the quartet’s performances in its first decade were almost always completely positive. The only complaints were about the conservative programming, with the prevalence of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, some Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn–and almost always Beethoven. In 1878 a program of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven’s Op. 131 had a reviewer commenting that since the Joachim Quartet concerts were “the caviar of musical delicacies,” the Singakademie was filled to the last place. Still, it “would…

string quartet concerts

The Joachim Quartet Series in Berlin

By admin | September 18, 2018April 6, 2019 by admin

Joseph Joachim (1831-1907) was the most important force in establishing the prominence and prestige of the Classical string quartet concert in modern concert life. When Joachim formed a quartet in 1869 in Berlin, it was part of the plan for the new “Königlichen Akademie der Künste zu Berlin verbundene Lehr-Anstalten für Musik.” The main idea was to provide an opportunity for students to hear professional performances of the repertoire they were studying by giving them…