Victoria String Quartet

Join us for the Lancaster premiere of the Victoria String Quartet! Sharing a passion for chamber music-making they performed their first concert in 2017 at the Victoria Baths, Manchester

Beethoven – String Quartet Opus 95 in F minor "Serioso"
Dvorak – '5 Cypresses' – Love Songs
Tchaikovsky – String Quartet No 1 Opus 11 in D

Benedict Holland (Violin)
David Greed (Violin)
Vicci Wardman (Viola)
Jennifer Langridge (Cello)

This programme, linked to the theme of 'age and ageing', begins with Beethoven's 'Serioso' quartet which was very experimental for its time (1810). In a letter to a friend Beethoven had written "If I had not read somewhere that no one should quit life voluntarily while he could still do something worthwhile, I would have been dead long ago… Oh life is so beautiful, but for me it is poisoned forever". We can hear this despair through the F minor key and the turbulent mood of this amazing quartet.

The Cypresses, in contrast, are a selection of Dvorak's 18 love songs for string quartet were arranged 2 years after their initial composition. The text for these songs comes from poems by Gustav Pfleger-Moravsky, from his collection 'Cypresses'.

Finally, Tchaikovsky's first string quartet. Tchaikovsky was not known for his chamber music – many believe his chamber works to be poor in comparison to his larger scale works. That is, however, apart from his first string quartet. What he eventually composed ended up being widely adored by audiences, and still is to this day.