Schubert, Bartók
Quartetto Goldberg

Quartetto Goldberg

Jingzhi Zhang, violin

Giacomo Lucato, violin

Matilde Simionato, viola

Martino Simionato, cello

Franz Schubert (1797–1828)

String Quartet No. 12 in C minor, D. 703 “Quartettsatz”

Béla Bartók (1881–1945)

String Quartet No. 4 in C major, BB 95, SZ 91

35' | Ticket €8

Within the setting of the Virgilio Museum, memory is not conceived as the past, but as a process of growth, in harmony with the young performers’ approach to the classical repertoire. In this journey, the key of C acts as a kind of harmonic “Virgil,” guiding the listener through the contrasting characters of the program.

Schubert’s Quartettsatz is a fragment of remarkable dramatic intensity, in which the composer’s characteristic dual thematic structure unfolds between a lyrical and expansive theme and a second, feverish and tense idea. Often regarded as the spiritual prelude to Death and the Maiden, the work stages a struggle without resolution: Death, evoked through the cello tremolos and forceful chords, ultimately seems to prevail. The violins’ desperate high-register invocations shatter against the final three chords, sealing the sense of inevitability.

Bartók’s String Quartet No. 4, by contrast, is built upon a symmetrical and mirrored structure: the first and fifth movements act as pillars, constructed through dense counterpoint and a rhythmic aggressiveness characteristic of twentieth-century music. The second and fourth movements, playful and complementary, explore rapid chromaticism and an almost entirely pizzicato texture, respectively. The third movement, described by the composer as “the seed between two shells,” draws its lifeblood from the sounds of nature, creating a static and tactile soundscape in which the first violin emerges with vivid birdsong-like figures over a rarefied and suspended texture.

Text by Martina Sangermano