The Natural World (Naturligtvis! Musik och poesi i takt med naturen)
What draws artists of all mediums to the natural world? A specially commissioned set of haikus by Malmö poet Birk Andersson takes us on a journey through Mozart and Haydn's nature-themed quartets, with an opportunity for the audience to write their own haikus along the way!

Program:
Haydn: String Quartet Op. 76 no. 4 “Sunrise”
Haydn: String Quartet Op. 33 no. 3 “The Bird”
Mozart: String Quartet no. 17 “The Hunt”
 
 
Full Fathom Five: Music Inspired by Shakespeare
Music from Locke's The Tempest and Purcell's Fairy Queen is woven together with songs and passages from Shakespeare’s plays The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, as we explore how Shakespeare uses music to create magic in his plays.

With Fredrik Bock, Lute

Program:
Mathew Locke: The Instrumental Music from The Tempest (1667)
Henry Purcell: The Fairy Queen Suite (1692)
Song settings of “Full Fathom Five” and “Where the Bee Sucks” by Robert Johnson (1612)
 
 For Four
J.S. Bach was by no means the first (or last) composer to write music for four voices with his monumental Art of Fugue. Immersing ourselves in the rich and complex sound-world of 17th century composers such as Purcell and Locke sheds a whole new light on Bach's monumental work, revealing the Fugue to be so much more than just a compositional exercise. 

In this kaleidoscopic program we make a journey from Bach's predecessors to composers of today who have been influenced by his music. It's also a journey from solitude to community,  full of lively conversations, colorful dissonances, and moments of both quiet reflection and unbridled joy along the way.

Music of J.S. Bach, Purcell, Locke, Byrd, Schop, Morley, Guido Morini and Hanna Blomberg


Felix and Fanny
The works of sibling composers Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn were often performed alongside one another in a Sunday concert series (Sonntagskonzerte) at their family home in Berlin. We create a cozy living room concert atmosphere with two quartets by these two magnificent composers.

Program:
Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel: String Quartet in E-flat Major 
Felix Mendelssohn: String Quartet op. 13 in A minor

 
 Don Giovanni Remix
An opera with no singers? The Bellevue String Quartet has put together our own version of Mozart’s beloved opera, with storytelling and selections from a string quartet arrangement from 1795. In the era before recording, chamber music arrangements were a way for people to experience opera in their own living rooms.

Program:
Don Giovanni for String Quartet (selections), arr. Joseph Küffner


 Stages of Desire
We tend to think of Mozart’s music as abstract, heavenly perfection. The Bellevue String Quartet looks at the earthy side of Mozart, and how he so eloquently expresses what it means to be human. We’ll pull some books off the shelf, including our Danish neighbor Kierkegaard’s Either/Or, which describes the way Mozart paints the different stages of desire through the characters in his operas.

With Johnny Teyssier, clarinet/Antoine Torunczyk, classical oboe

Program: 
Mozart: Don Giovanni Overture 
Mozart: Marriage of Figaro—Voi che sapete (string quartet arrangement) 
Mozart: Magic Flute—Papageno’s aria (string quartet arrangement) 
 Mozart: Don Giovanni—Champagne aria (string quartet arrangement) 
Mozart: Dissonance Quartet no. 19, first movement 
Mozart: Don Giovanni List aria (string quartet arrangement) 
Mozart: Clarinet Quintet/Mozart: Oboe Quartet