Haydn Quartet in B flat, Op 33 No 4
Haydn Quartet in G, Op 77 No 1
Schubert Quartet in G, D887

*This is a change to the programme originally advertised

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‘a trailblazer for the authentic performance of High Classical chamber music’

Gramophone

Our Associate Artists have a unique sound which comes from them performing on gut strings and with historical bows.

For their latest visit, the Chiaroscuro Quartet perform two quartets by Haydn. He described his Op 33 set of quartets as written ‘in a new and special way’. It has been suggested this was a marketing pitch to subscribers. However it was also a reflection of the fact that the works are lighter and less serious than their predecessors. Haydn’s Op 77 set, and Schubert’s D887 are the last works both composers wrote for string quartet. Haydn’s was composed in the wake of the success of his major choral work The Creation. Schubert’s large-scale work, written in only took ten days in 1826, was not performed in public during the composer’s lifetime; and only published in 1851, long after his death.

Playing with gut strings is one thing; playing with such assuredness and golden musicality on them is another. Scotsman