Barbican Quartet: Manifesto on Love

The title of this compelling collection of string quartet music refers to works directly inspired by love. Robert and Clara Schumann are probably the most gifted married couple in musical history, and the often wildly romantic music of Robert was deeply inspired by his wife, including the gorgeous String Quartet No. 3 heard here. Janáček’s love for Kamila Stösslová, who was 38 years younger than the aging composer, was objectively obsessive. Both were married (to others) and their relationship was distant and nonsexual, but he wrote over 700 love letters to her, which he expressed musically in his quirky, but intensely beautiful string quartet, Intimate Letters, premiered in the last year of his life. By presenting these masterpieces together, the radiantly expressive London-based Barbican Quartet creates a beautiful irony of reversed expectations; the music of the young Schumann (who was 32 when he completed this quartet) is serene and content, while Janáček’s hoary work, completed just months before his death in 1928, is anguished, at times bordering on violence. This is a fascinating stew of vibrant emotions. The program also includes a new work by the Bulgarian-British composer Dobrinka Tabakova, The Ear of Grain, a colorful and witty piece in one movement.