Meta4

With bold musicality and technical brilliance, the Finnish ensemble Meta4 has captivated audiences around the world. The quartet has received numerous awards, including first prize at the International Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Competition in Vienna. Now they return to Konserthuset Stockholm for a concert where intimacy and emotional depth take centre stage.

Almost a century has passed since Leoš Janáček wrote his String Quartet No. 2, Intimate Letters – a passionate musical love letter to Kamila Stösslová, the woman who became his lifelong muse. The work brims with emotion – from burning desire and longing to pain and hope – in music that is as spontaneous as it is profoundly moving.

Sally Beamish’s Nine Fragments (2018) is inspired by Robert Schumann’s first string quartet, as well as by the relationship between Robert and his wife Clara. The work consists of nine very short movements – each like a shattered mirror reflecting a particular moment in Schumann’s original, with glimpses of everything from melancholy to euphoria.

Robert Schumann was in a state of bliss when composing his first string quartet. It was during his intense “chamber music year”, and the music invites the listener on a romantic journey filled with lyrical melodies and emotional intensity – all shaped by the love he felt for Clara. Schumann himself organised the premiere of his Quartets Nos. 1–3 as a birthday gift to Clara on her 23rd birthday.