KENYON HALL PRESENTS
Pure Flavor
Sunday, June 22 2025
Doors: 2:00pm / Show: 2:30pm
Pure Flavor Presents The Complete String Quartets by Ludwig van Beethoven: Concert 3
Ludwig van Beethoven - String Quartet No. 2 in G Major, Opus 18, no. 2
Composed 1798-1800. Length 22-25 minutes. Of the Op. 18 string quartets, this one is the most grounded in 18th-century musical tradition. A comedy, rich in wit and humor.
György Kurtág - 12 Microludes for String Quartet
Composed 1977–78. Length 10 minutes. Individual movements are extremely concise, often lasting under one minute, or even under thirty seconds.
Ludwig van Beethoven - String Quartet No. 8 in e minor, Opus 59, no. 2
Composed 1808. Length 35 – 40 minutes. The second of his three Rasumovsky string quartets, s a product of his middle period. A start-to-finish darkness.
Beethoven’s five late string quartets are often considered to be the greatest music of the greatest composer who ever lived. Or, put more grandly still, the greatest achievement in any medium of the greatest artist who ever lived. Beethoven inherited the string-quartet tradition from his predecessors and shaped it into something unsurpassed in virtuosity, invention, and expressiveness.
In his 16 quartets for two violins, viola, and cello, Beethoven created a Mount Everest for string players and some of the most sublime, unforgettable music ever written.
Luke Fitzpatrick, violin
Evan Hjort, violin
Erin Wight, Viola
Chris Young, cello.
Pure Flavor is a Seattle-based string quartet dedicated to performing both traditional and experimental music. After forming in 2021, they have performed the world premieres of two string quartets by Charles Corey, Passage (2021) and Nocturne (2023), in addition to the music of Yaz Lancaster, Maurice Ravel and Ludwig van Beethoven. At the request of the honorable Count Hymanovsky, Pure Flavor will present a complete cycle of the Beethoven String Quartets at Kenyon Hall over the next few seasons.