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| Arcadia String Quartet Courtenay Centre, Newton Abbot, Sunday 18 February 3pm |
With a busy international concert schedule taking them across Europe, they will perform in Newton Abbot as part of their UK 2018 tour.
The Arcadia Quartet have chosen to perform works of enormous contrast, encompassing wit and humour, lyric beauty, serenity, lightheartedness and stark intensity: in fact, the whole gamut of emotions. It will indeed be a concert to entertain and stimulate.
Josef Haydn: String Quartet No 30 in E flat, HobIII/38 “The Joke”
Alexander Borodin: String Quartet No.2 in D (1885)
Dmitri Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op.110 “Dresden”
The concert is sponsored by Wollen Michelmore, Solicitors.
Venue: Courtenay Centre, Newton Abbot TQ12 2QA
Date: Sunday 18 February 2018
Time: 3:00pm
Tickets: £15 (advance £13 members £10 student £2 child FREE)
Telephone: 01626 368318
PRESS RELEASE
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| Arcadia String Quartet Violin: Răsvan Dumitru Viola: Trakan Boală Violin: Anna Török 'Cello: Zsolt Török |
Enjoy an afternoon of entertaining and stimulating music at the Courtenay Centre, Newton Abbot, on Sunday 18 February at 3pm, when nadsaconcerts presents the Arcadia String Quartet in the 5th concert of the season. This multi-prize-winning quartet, formed in 2006 while students at the Gheorghe Dima Music Academy in Romania, is rapidly establishing itself as one of the most exciting string quartets of their generation.
The programme will consist of three notable and markedly contrasting creations: Haydn’s 30th quartet ‘The Joke’, Borodin’s 2nd quartet - a tuneful masterpiece, and Shostakovich’s autobiographical 8th.
Although Gregorio Allegri (1582 – 1652) and Alessandro Scarlatti (1660 – 1725), had already written sonatas for four string instruments without harpsichord, there can be no doubt as to Haydn’s unparalleled contribution towards the development of the string quartet. In his freeing of the cello from its traditional accompanying role, and his imposition of the Classical style upon the genre, he became known as the ‘Father of the String Quartet’.
Haydn’s music is well-known for its easy-going sense of humour and wit: his quartet,‘the Joke’, with its robust earthiness and gleeful unpredictability, is no exception. Second of a set of six written in 1781, ‘The Joke’ is the 30th of his 68 string quartets, and is a wonderful example of his incredible imaginative genius.
Born, illegitimate son of a nobleman and a peasant, in St Petersberg, Borodin (1833 - 87) enjoyed a good private education, had a brilliant career as a research chemist and professor of chemistry, and was a strong advocate of women’s rights. Composition, initially always secondary in his life, gained prominence in the 1870s, and it was owing to Liszt that his music began to be performed outside Russia during this period.
Borodin wrote his 2nd string quartet in 1881 (a century after Haydn’s ‘Joke’). Dedicated to his wife, Katerina, for their 20th anniversary, its haunting and, at times, overwhelmingly evocative lyricism has ensured its place in the hearts of listeners.
Shostakovich’s 8th quartet is a masterpiece of the twentieth century. Composed in only three days in 1960 during a visit to Dresden (to compose music for film), it was inscribed ‘In rememberance of the victims of Fascism and war’. 1960 marked a turning point in his life: he joined the Communist Party and his health deteriorated further. Shostakovitch filled this quartet with quotations from earlier works, and the main theme (based on his name) opens the work and recurs throughout. Despite its austere and tragic music, it enjoys outstanding appeal and is the most loved of all his 15 quartets.
The Arcadia String Quartet, having recorded both Janacek’s ground-breaking quartets, are in the process of recording the complete quartets of Bartok. They are an ensemble not to be missed.
NADSA Concerts
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Arcadia String Quartet
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Courtenay Centre, Newton Abbot
(Kingsteignton Road TQ12 2QA)
Sunday 18 February 3pm
Sunday 18 February 3pm
ARCADIA STRING QUARTET
Violin: Anna Török, Răsvan DumitruViola: Trakan Boală
'Cello: Zsolt Török
Josef Haydn: “The Joke” String Quartet No 30
Alexander Borodin: String Quartet No.2 in D (1885)
Dmitri Shostakovich: “Dresden” String Quartet No. 8
Tickets: £15
(advance £13 members £10 student £2 child FREE)
Online Booking: TicketSource
Enquiries: membership@nadsa.co.uk
Telephone: 01626 368318
Online Booking: TicketSource
Enquiries: membership@nadsa.co.uk
Telephone: 01626 368318
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