Quatuor Mosaïques: Haydn, Mozart and Schubert, Queen Elizabeth Hall

Fancy a journey back to the time of powdered wigs, roast pigeon and bizarrely-named diseases? At a Quatuor Mosaïques concert your ears, at least, are entitled to one. Formed in Vienna in the late 1980s, Quatuor Mosaïques are now the leading historical performance string quartet, having toured the world with historically accurate renditions of late eighteenth-century to early nineteenth-century repertoire on period-appropriate, gut-stringed instruments. 

Don’t make the mistake of dismissing this as part of a po-faced clamouring for “authenticity” observable in some of today’s early music communities. Their cellist Christophe Coin has said they use period-appropriate instruments to create “the perfect listening conditions” in hopes “that the listener can see how the elements have been put together, and at the same time get a complete view of the work of art”. With the stated aim of giving audiences a holistic picture of the music by drawing out the minute details that constitute, you can see why they called themselves “Quatuor Mosaïques”. 

Here, the quartet perform three undisputed classics: Haydn’s String Quartet in C, Op. 76 No. 3, Mozart’s String Quartet in B flat, K. 458, and Schubert’s String Quartet in A minor D.804, ‘Rosamunde’. We’re particularly looking forward to seeing how Quartet Mosaïque’s instruments bring out the three contrasting strands that comprise the opening of Schubert’s ‘Rosamunde’ quartet, but in all honesty, you will experience a refreshing new take on all of these three masterpieces by the end of the concert. No doubt the period-performance crowd will be queueing round the block for this one, so make sure that you book those tickets early to avoid disappointment.