Wigmore Hall 125th Anniversary Season

JACK Quartet returns to Wigmore Hall for their annual three-concert day with performances at 11:30 AM, 3:00 PM, and 7:30 PM.

Concert #1: 11:30 AM
Catherine Lamb , String Quartet No. 1 (Two Blooms) 

Two blooms grows from a sustained unison that shimmers as its texture changes. American composer Catherine Lamb’s meditative single-movement work, written in 2009 and later recorded by JACK Quartet, blurs the boundaries between harmony, melody and rhythm to create a transcendent unity of shimmering sound.

Concert #2: 3:00 PM
Hans Abrahamsen, String Quartet No.
Wolfgang Rihm, Im Innersten

‘High in the sky singing‘ and ‘Dark, Heavy and Earthy’ are among the descriptions applied to the four movements of Quartet No. 4 by Hans Abrahamsen, Oliver Knussen’s Professor of Composition at London’s Royal Academy of Music. JACK Quartet places the Danish composer’s vibrant score in company with Wolfgang Rihm’s impassioned ‘Im Innersten’, composed 50 years ago yet utterly compelling in its contemporary relevance.

Concert #3: 7:30 PM
Helmut Lachenmann, Grido
Helmut Lachenmann, Mes Adieux 
Helmut Lachenmann, Gran Torso
Helmut Lachenmann, Reigen seliger Geister

JACK Quartet’s recording of Helmut Lachenmann’s three string quartets, released in 2014, was lauded for its technical precision, dynamic intensity and seductive beauty. The group’s feeling for his distinctive music, with its radical approach to sound and its production, has deepened in the years since. JACK concludes its latest Wigmore Hall outing with a tribute to the German composer just a few months after his 90th birthday.

The New York Times: Helmut Lachenmann’s Music is Like Nothing Else