As ensemble in residence, the Belcea Quartet has been closely associated with the Pierre Boulez Saal for the past two years. In their third and final concert this season, the four musicians explore the fate of tonality within the string quartet format. The works of Haydn here appear as the origin of a musical tradition that finds its furthest reaches in the string quartets of Janáček. But these two points are not presented as the limits of a strict progression. Rather, they are intimately intertwined: history here takes the form not of an inexorable forward march but of an ambling movement between past and present.

At the end of the season, the Quartet Week casts a spotlight on what many consider to be the quintessential chamber music format. Between June 7 and 16, eleven extraordinary international ensembles will explore both the historical development and the vast emotional scope of the string quartet genre in the intimate space of the Pierre Boulez Saal.