Chiaroscuro Quartet

Great string quartets on period instruments.

The Chiaroscuro Quartet perform landmark works by Bach, Haydn and Beethoven.

For over twenty years, the Chiaroscuro Quartet has been changing the way we hear great music. The group, which plays on historic instruments strung with animal gut instead of steel, is known for finding deep contrasts in music we thought we knew. Its name comes from the artistic technique of exploiting the very same contrasts in drawing and painting.

After two performances with Leif Ove Andsnes at the Universitetsaulaen, the Chiaroscuro Quartet comes to Håkonshallen to play pivotal works of Baroque, Classical and Romantic chamber music.

Haydn’s quartet nicknamed ‘The Joke’ is known for its playful twists and turns. The Art of Fugue is Bach’s deep exploration of counterpoint. Beethoven changed the scale and demands of chamber music with the emotional extremities explored in the first of his ‘Razumovsky’ quartets.

Photo: Joss McKinley