Programme Notes for the evening (PDF - January 27th 2013)

String Quartet No. 11 in F minor, Op. 95 Serioso

String Quartet No. 11 in F minor, Op. 122

String Quartet No. 14 in C sharp minor, Op. 131

Ofer Falk, violin
Rafael Todes, violin
Dorothea Vogel, viola
Vanessa Lucas-Smith, cello

The celebrated Allegri Quartet reach the end of their monumental Beethoven-Shostakovich cycle. Beethoven’s beautiful F minor quartet, is followed by Shostakovich’s eleventh quartet from 1966, ostensibly in the same tonality of F minor, but cast in seven short interlocking movements. The cycle is completed with Beethoven’s Op. 131 quartet, one of the most profound utterances in the quartet medium. Composed at the very end of his life, it is a special musical and spiritual journey.

Pre-Concert Talk with Dr Robert Hanson – 17:00, St Pancras Room