Late, Last, Least

An intriguing programme of string quartets by Beethoven, Haydn and Webern that have been overshadowed and overlooked.

Both Haydn and Beethoven’s last contribution to the string quartet genre leave us with questions - and cryptic clues. Why did Haydn allow his last string quartet to be published as an incomplete fragment? And why does the final complete work that Beethoven ever composed, his String Quartet in F major, Op. 135, seem to retreat into convention after the wild experiments of the ‘late’ quartets?

Curiously (and surely not coincidentally?), both quartets by Haydn and Beethoven feature text: snippets from their own vocal canons. Are these coded messages from the composers from beyond the grave?

Framed by an early quartet by Webern, discovered only after his death, the Cambridge String Quartet will explore what it means to be late, last and least in these great composer’s string quartets.