Princeton University Concerts present: Ébène String Quartet

Beethoven was not one to mince words. Sending out the parts for his String Quartet No. 12, Op. 127, he insisted that each player “undertakes to do his duty and…vie in excellence with the others.” Enter the Ébène Quartet, fresh from a monumental, six-continent journey recording all sixteen Beethoven quartets. One of the most revelatory, fan-favorite ensembles in our recent history, they mark the composer’s 200th anniversary with a program that moves from the wit and invention of his early quartets—those written when he had, in his own opinion, “only now learned to write quartets properly”—to the depth and daring of his late works. Across two centuries, it’s a meeting of kindred spirits: Beethoven’s restless imagination, and an ensemble whose boundless artistry has earned an equally devoted following as they, indeed, vie in excellence.