The Juilliard String Quartet, made up of professors from New York's Juilliard School, has built up a huge repertoire over several generations in 70 years - including dozens of world premieres by US composers. And new things continue to happen with them: in 2015, the quartet released an app for Schubert's „Death and the Maiden“. Since cellist Astrid Schween joined the Juilliards for the first time in 2016, the quartet's internal gender balance has been completely reversed: there are now three female musicians on first violin, viola and cello, and one male musician on second violin.

Ludwig van Beethoven's string quartets are among the most fascinating and demanding works in music history. In this concert, two of his compositions for the genre frame two others in which composer Jörg Widmann explores the quartet oeuvre of the classical grand master.