In their second offering for UKARIA, the Leonkoro Quartet presents a unique selection of Austro-German voices old and new. The lavish late-Romantic vocabulary of Anton Webern’s 1905 single-movement Langsamer Satz is testament to the influence of his teacher Arnold Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht. From late-Romanticism, the Leonkoro Quartet shifts towards a far more modern language that yet grapples with a nineteenth-century musical legacy. Contemporary German composer Jörg Widmann describes his ninth string quartet Beethoven Study IV as having ‘a particular focus on Beethoven’s still unattainable Quartet in C sharp minor, Op. 131’. As is only fitting after such an overt dedication, the Leonkoro Quartet answers Widmann’s work with its original inspiration: Beethoven’s groundbreaking, formidable Op. 131.

Leonkoro Quartet are also performing at UKARIA on Saturday 2 May at 5.30pm.