Liebesfreud's twelfth season officially begins at 5:30p.m. on September 30th
with quartets by two of music's most gifted and devoted composers in the string quartet genre.
Haydn, known as the father of the string quartet (and the symphony, for that matter) wrote so engagingly for this chamber ensemble. He earned the admiration of Mozart and Beethoven, but by the time he began his final string quartet- op. 103- he realized his powers were beginning to wane so he stopped writing after completing only two movements, noting as he did, "Gone is all my strength; old and weak am I".
Notwithstanding this self-assessment, the work as it exists (like the Schubert "Unfinished" symphony and Mozart [uncompleted] mass both of which the Philadelphia Orchestra perform this week) is a masterpiece and a great gift to music lovers.
Schubert, even though his lifespan was so much shorter than Haydn's, left a truly remarkable legacy as well and it is impossible to imagine the world without his heartrendingly beautiful "Rosamunde" quartet [op. 29] which is the feature work of this one-hour program.
As always- admission is free for concerts in this "Last Fridays" series.