Fitzwilliam String Quartet - Four Players, Four Centuries

Sat 8 January 2022

Clare Hall

Programme:
Purcell: Fantazia No.6 (1680)
Marcus Barcham Stevens: Double on Purcell’s Fantazia No.6 (2014)
Haydn: Quartet in D major, Op.76/5 (1796)
Beethoven: Quartet in C sharp minor, Op.131 (1826)

Alan George, a founding member of the Quartet, comments:
"An ambition for the next three years is for Clare Hall and its guests to be given as complete a coverage as possible of those specific areas of music which have helped put the FSQ on the map. Indeed, our very first programme immediately sets the tone by presenting in quick succession two works composed five centuries apart! We are proud of our quest to push the boundaries of the quartet repertoire back into the 17th century – sometimes employing historical instruments in the process – as well as keeping right up-to-date with new commissions: in this instance, composed for us by our former second violinist. However, few would disagree that Vienna remains at the centre of the string quartet world, and here are two of its unquestioned masterpieces. The C sharp minor quartet might even be considered by some to be the greatest of all time: Roger Fiske has written that 'in this music Beethoven seems to have escaped from the world of men and to have achieved utter spirituality'”.

Cost: £5-£15