quartetto plus - Schedule, Program & Tickets

For the fourth time, Esterházy Palace will open its doors from March 20 to March 22, 2026 for quartetto plus, one of the few international festivals for the string quartet format, which is often described by connoisseurs as the supreme discipline of classical music-making. At the original venue of Joseph Haydn's work - which laid the foundations of the genre as we know it today - international quartets, including Opus13, the winners of the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition, the Isidore String Quartet and many more, will present works from different eras. Works from different eras.

March 20, 7:30 pm, Haydnsaal: Opus13
Opus13 (winner of the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition 2025)

Sonoko Miriam Welde, violin
Edvard Erdal, violin
Albin Uusijärvi, viola
Daniel Thorell, violoncello
Julian Bliss, clarinet

Joseph Haydn: String Quartet in C major op. 76 No. 3 ("Emperor Quartet")
Edvard Grieg: String Quartet in G minor op. 27
Johannes Brahms: Clarinet Quintet in B minor op. 115

When a string quartet names itself after Felix Mendelssohn's Quartet in A minor op. 13, the first work that the four played together as teenagers in Oslo, then the youthful passion and soaring ambition of this music is transformed into the ensemble's motto. So it's no wonder that Opus13, winners of the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition 2025, are also presenting this very composition as the centerpiece of their performance in Eisenstadt. Haydn's venerable "Emperor Quartet" with the variations on the hymn "Gott erhalte" pays homage to the genius loci. And a wonderful late work by Haydn admirer Johannes Brahms realizes the festival title "quartetto plus": the versatile English clarinettist Julian Bliss joins in for Brahms' Opus 115, in which the composer once again reveals his love for Hungarian music.

Subject to change without notice.