In their second concert during the Quartet Week, the Michelangelo String Quartet—whose members also teach at the Barenboim-Said Akademie—are joined by Akademie students. The program features two defining compositions for the rare octet format: in Mendelssohn’s work, the different string voices flow together in an almost symphonic expansiveness, while in Enescu’s octet individual voices repeatedly break out from a dense contrapuntal web.

At the end of the season, the Quartet Week casts a spotlight on what many consider to be the quintessential chamber music format. Between June 7 and 16, eleven extraordinary international ensembles will explore both the historical development and the vast emotional scope of the string quartet genre in the intimate space of the Pierre Boulez Saal.