Hagen Quartet review – Mozart celebrated with sparkling spontaneity

Wigmore Hall, London

A series of concerts devoted to Mozart’s quartets kicks off with an exhilarating exploration of the boundaries of his writing

Mozart’s string quartets are core chamber music repertoire. That much is beyond question. But a concentrated series of concerts exclusively devoted to Mozart quartets, an approach familiar with the quartets of Beethoven, Schubert or Bartók – that’s a bit unusual. Does this relatively rare opportunity suggest a slight modern tendency to take this music for granted?

If so, a series of Mozart concerts by the Hagen Quartet at the Wigmore Hall provides the best and most robust answer. Their four concerts this week span the whole of Mozart’s mature quartet output after his move to Vienna, played in strict publication order. If that is not tempting enough, then the sparkling spontaneity of the way the Hagens approach works they have played many times over the years ought to be the clincher.

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