These two string quartets have been playing at the highest level for many years. The Finnish quartet Meta4 won the ECHO Klassik Award for its recording of Haydn string quartets. The Zurich-based Gringolts Quartet has also been awarded an ECHO – namely for its recording of works by Brahms. These two exceptional quartets can now be experienced in one special concert – with each ensemble performing a work by their favourite composers Haydn and Brahms, before taking to the stage together to perform Mendelssohn’s  String Octet.Joseph Haydn’s 1797 String Quartet in G major Hob. III/75 heralded the composer’s last great series of works, in which his flair, spirit and humour are fully expressed. Johannes Brahms’s String Quartet No. 3, Op. 67, is a heavyweight of the repertoire, blending polka elements with Romantic ecstasy. After the interval, Meta4 and the Gringolts Quartet join forces for Mendelssohn’s 1826 Octet, which the composer described as his »favourite work from the early years«. read less