Brodsky Quartet

Lancaster Arts is honoured and incredibly delighted to finally be able to bring back the renowned Brodsky Quartet on Tuesday 28th September, last heard in the Great Hall in 2017. After having to postpone this concert, originally programmed to end our Summer Season on the 30th of June, this long-awaited evening of music is sure to be worth the wait!

Bach: Sonata for Solo Violin in C major (arr. Paul Cassidy)
Britten: String Quartet no. 3
Schubert: String Quartet in D minor

This programme runs from the brand new, never heard before, to perhaps the most famous quartet in the repertoire. The central theme is death. Bach is said to have written his Six Solos for Violin after the unexpected death of his wife. Paul Cassidy’s arrangements of the 3 Sonatas were borne out of lockdown and are, to his knowledge, unique.

Britten wrote his extraordinary Third Quartet on his deathbed. Indeed, the composer Colin Matthews had to actually write down parts of the last movement (in which he quotes extensively from ‘Death in Venice’) for him, such was his failing health.

Schubert’s masterpiece takes its name from the slow movement. A set of variations on the theme of one of his most dramatic songs ‘Death and the Maiden’ in which Death offers a friendly hand to a terror-stricken young girl.

The Brodsky Quartet are the team for the new century.

 Gramaphone