Mark Steinberg, the founder and primarius of the Brentano String Quartet, considers Bartók’s Fifth String Quartet to be a magnificent and beautiful work. Together with the other members of the Quartet, he has curated a program centered around Bartók’s piece. The program highlights the stylistic devices used by the composer by including works of other fellow composers, such as Purcell, Bach, Haydn, Beethoven, and Berio. Of course, Bartók’s Fifth Quartet is also played in the program.

Bartók’s Fifth Quartet features canons, mirrored voices, rhythms borrowed from folk music, and repetition of the same pitch. He utilized all the possibilities these compositional techniques offer to create this piece. After exploring these stylistic devices in the works of other composers, the listener hears Bartók’s Fifth Quartet with a different ear.