Kammermusik am Picassoplatz

This concert series gives musicians from the Sinfonieorchester Basel the chance to perform in chamber music ensembles, and offers you an exclusive opportunity to meet our musicians. Experience extraordinary programmes at the Picassoplatz rehearsal centre

Bedřich Smetana saw his First String Quartet as an autobiography in music. According to the composer, this «life journey» unfolds in four movements, from «my youthful inclination toward art» to «the onset of deafness.» Smetana's quartet was premiered in 1878 in a private setting. In the same year, Edvard Grieg wrote his only string quartet. With its almost orchestral drama, it aims, according to Grieg, at «vastness and the flight of fantasy.» The entire piece is based on a theme that Grieg took from his song Spillemaend (The Fiddlers).