Beethoven250: Chamber Recital with Mutter, Choi, Babesko, & Mller-Schott

The all-star chamber ensemble of violinists Anne-Sophie Mutter (in residence with the SF Symphony this season) and Ye-Eun Choi, violist Vladimir Babesko, and cellist Daniel Müller-Schott brings impeccable musicality and virtuosity to a program that celebrates Beethoven’s 250th birthday. Composed in 1798, Beethoven’s charming early string trio is one of the most important contributions to the genre; few trios compare in drawing such alluring sonorities and captivating textures from the instruments. Closing the program is one of the composer’s “middle-period” works, the Harp string quartet. With its combination of vitality, heart, and inventiveness, this chamber piece has been called Beethoven’s most perfect quartet. Nestled in between these is the world premiere of a string quartet by German composer Jörg Widmann—whose music is often paired with Beethoven’s—and who, in 2018, was surveyed as being one of the world’s top three most-performed living composers.