The concert of the David Oistrakh String Quartet focuses on composers from Russia, Georgia, and Hungary. Their program places Borodin’s classically structured String Quartet No. 2 next to the turbulent expressivity of Shostakovich’s Ninth Quartet, while also including more open formats such as Night Prayers, a piece for strings and pre-recorded sounds by Giya Kancheli and an arrangement of Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances.

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.