Beethoven: String Quartet No.1 - II. Adagio | Borromeo String Quartet

Arms, take your last embrace! And lips, O you
The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss
- Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet (Tomb Scene)
Did you know that Beethoven was a huge fan of Shakespeare? Shakespearean scenes and themes crop up with some regularity in Beethoven’s music. One scholar has identified no fewer than 19 Beethoven works in that category, none more overtly than the aching second movement of the String Quartet No. 1 in F Major, Op. 18, No. 1. “I was thinking about the tomb scene in Romeo and Juliet,” Beethoven told a violinist friend. Indeed, Beethoven scholar Lewis Lockwood summarizes the affettuoso ed appassionato movement at “the two conflicting principles of Romeo’s despair and Juliet’s beauty.”
From the first episode of Beethoven Experience with The Borromeo Quartet comes this stunning performance of the second movement, marked, "Adagio affettuoso ed appassionato." Performed by the Borromeo Quartet: Nicholas Kitchen and Kristopher Tong, violin; Mai Motobuchi, viola, and Yeesun Kim Kitchen, cello, at Jordan Hall at New England Conservatory in Boston, MA on March 8, 2020...the final performance at NEC before being forced to close by the COVID-19 pandemic.
View the complete performance from Episode I of the Beethoven Experience series here: • The Beethoven Experien...
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[@luisfelipe8662]

This is really deep. I love their dynamics. Great musicians!

[@philipallard8026]

I feel as if I am listening to a deep conversation in a new language. This is a wonderful performance and you are all breathing at the same time as you combining your voices in this marvelous music.