In our second concert, we welcome the internationally-renowned Esmé Quartet. 2018 first prize winners of the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition, Esmé has been praised for their “intensely nuanced playing” and “sublime artistry.” It’s our good fortune that Esmé has recently made its home in San Francisco as the newest resident-artist ensemble at San Francisco Performances and visiting faculty artists at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Their program marries Haydn’s aptly-named “Joke” Quartet, a piece full of musical slapstick, with the sumptuous neo-Romanticism of Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s second string quartet. The final movement of the Korngold quartet returns us to Haydn-esque playfulness with a light-hearted Viennese waltz. Prepare to be swept off your feet!
The Music
Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) - String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 33, No. 2, “The Joke”
Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957) - String Quartet No. 2 in E-flat Major, Op. 26
