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May

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Chilingirian Quartet with Prunella Pacey (viola)

The Mozart Quintets – Concert 1

Mozart String Quintet No. 1 in B flat, K.174
Mendelssohn String Quintet No. 1 in A, Op. 18
Mozart String Quintet No. 3 in C, K.515

Levon Chilingirian violin
Ronald Birks violin
Susie Mészáros viola
Stephen Orton cello
Prunella Pacey viola

String Quintets are divided into two principal types – those that add an extra cello to a quartet, and those that add an extra viola. This is the first of three concerts to survey all six Mozart String Quintets, all of which feature an extra viola, that most special of instruments to Mozart, who played it himself in quartets with his great friend Haydn.

Each programme, performed by the renowned Chilingirian Quartet, with violist Prunella Pacey, contrasts two Mozart quintets with other famous examples of the ‘viola’ quintet medium – this first one features Mendelssohn’s striking A major Quintet from the early 1830s.

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6.30pm Sunday, 13th May 2018

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FREE! Pre-Concert Performance: Arcus Quartet - Sunday 13th May, 5.45pm

Mendelssohn String Quartet no 4 in E minor op 44 no 2

Iida Lymi violin
Abel Puustinen violin
Geeta Nazareth viola
Ruth Hallows cello

The Arcus Quartet is a dynamic string quartet from the Royal College of Music, London. Together, the members have performed in concert halls across the United Kingdom including Doddington Hall, Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall and the Carol Nash Recital Hall in Manchester as well as making their Wigmore Hall debut in March 2017 with their performance of Schubert’s Death and the Maiden.

This season, the Arcus Quartet will be collaborating with the award-winning Sacconi Quartet, performing Shostakovich’s ‘Two Pieces for String Octet’. The Quartet embarked on their first tour, ‘The Northern Tour’ this February, taking to the North West of England to perform in Manchester Cathedral, Todmorden Town Hall, Skipton Town Hall and St Thomas’ Barrowford. The Arcus Quartet will also be running its own educational project alongside the tour, aimed to inspire the next generation through chamber music.

The Quartet has worked with some of the world’s greatest quartet players, including violinist Pavel Fischer, co-founder and leader of the Škampa Quartet; Dutch/English violinist Daniel Rowland; and the British-based Carducci Quartet and Castalian Quartet. In 2017 the Arcus Quartet took part in the National Young String Quartet Weekend in Manchester where they worked closely with several leading chamber professors including cellist Christoph Richter (ex Cherubini Quartet) and Czech violinist Jan Talich of the Talich Quartet.

For our performance this evening the Arcus Quartet will be performing Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No. 4 in E minor. Op. 44 No. 2. We’ve chosen this particular string quartet because it beautifully compliments the main programme. The two works by Mendelssohn were published within seven years of each other, the Quintet first in 1832 and the Quartet in 1839. They also share themes of grief and mourning. Although originally composed in 1826, the Quintet had its second movement revised in 1832 after the death Mendelssohn’s close friend, violinist Eduard Rietz; the sense of mourning can be shared by the E minor String Quartet due to the key chosen by Mendelssohn. E minor is often associated with feelings of grief, mourning and restlessness, very apparent in the syncopation that starts the first movement.