The young Aris Quartet, which has won numerous first prizes, has chosen a programme for its Festspielhaus debut that provides insights into two composers' lives: a marital crisis in Grieg's case, the shock of his sister's death in Mendelssohn's. The "shock" is taken literally in Mendelssohn's music. Mendelssohn's music takes the "shaking" literally: the quartet begins like an earthquake, only to come to rest somewhat in the slow movement.
