In the most recent performance last week presented by Princeton University Concerts, it was fitting that the music of Franz Schubert, who played in a family string quartet ensemble, was performed by a mostly family quartet of musicians. The Salzburg-based Hagen String Quartet is comprised of three siblings — violinist Lukas, violist Veronika, and cellist Clemens Hagen — with the quartet completed by violinist Rainer Schmidt. The Hagen Quartet came to Richardson Auditorium last Thursday night to perform Schubert, Shostakovich, and Dvořák, showing the nearly full house that maybe there is something to sibling intuition and musical clairvoyance. 

Schubert composed his string quartet repertory as a teenager, but in Quartet No. 10 in E-flat Major, the composer’s legendary melodic style was already apparent. The melodic passages in this quartet fell mostly to violinist Lukas Hagen, who consistently played with a sweet and somewhat softer sound. This subtle performing style only endeared the Hagen Quartet more to the audience, as the ensemble brought out Schubert’s individual twist on a popular late 18th-century musical form.

Throughout this piece, cellist Clemens Hagen added vibrato selectively, and was well matched with violist Veronika Hagen for an extended galloping rhythmic figure in the first movement. The Hagen Quartet’s interpretation of the second movement’s gypsy feel showed that Schubert was not beyond teasing the players and audience.

Initially, the music of the 20th-century Russian Dmitri Shostakovich would seem far removed from early 19th-century Schubert, but Shostakovich was also capable of lighter moments and elegant melodic passages. Even within the structure of 12-tone composition, Shostakovich’s Quartet No. 12 in D-flat Major provided the players an opportunity for rich and poignant lines.

Clemens Hagen began the Quartet with a wandering cello line, joined by first violin and viola with the effect of music rising out of a well. Mr. Schmidt joined the trio with a rich tone, making the second violin part sound indiscernible from that of the viola. The cello part in particular was much more dramatic than in Schubert’s quartet, and the rest of the musicians were consistently precise, even amidst apparent musical chaos. Shostakovich’s second movement extended Allegretto was marked by particularly well-blended violins and viola, complemented by the mournful cello line.

The Hagen Quartet devoted the second half of the concert to one work: Antonín Dvořák’s Quartet No. 14 in A-flat Major, a work completed after the composer’s residency in the United States and one which showed polyrhythms and shifting time signatures Dvořák may have absorbed from the 19th-century American musical style. Like the Shostakovich work, this quartet began darkly, but brightened up quickly with a quick theme well played by first violin. The Hagen Quartet kept the musical action moving along, especially bringing out a swirling gypsy feel from the dance-based second movement. Several times in the second movement, the quartet arrived on unison notes simultaneously, creating a dramatic effect contrasting with the quick lines and rhythms. The third movement featured sweet interplay among all instruments, and the four players of the Hagen Quartet cadenced phrases well. Particularly intriguing was a saucy interlude between first and second violins in this movement, followed by a sprightly closing Allegro. The transition to the ending coda of the work ended the concert in grand style.

The Hagen Quartet performs with a set of instruments made by Stradivari and known as the “Paganini” quartet, previously played by the Paganini, Cleveland, and Tokyo String Quartets. With a similarly long familial history, the instruments heard Thursday night were as well blended as the musicians of the Hagen String Quartet.