IMMORTAL BELOVED - Late Beethoven and Shostakovich String Quartets with the Corleone Quartet
Sunday 1st November from 6:00 pm
A candle-lit performance in the Brompton cemetery chapel of two classic late string quartets by Beethoven and Shostakovich with the Corleone Quartet. - SOLD OUT
IMPORTANT ARRIVAL INSTRUCTIONS:
As Brompton Cemetery will be closed to the general public from 5 pm, the only entrance that will be open for the concert is the one on Old Brompton Road. We chose this entrance as it is located directly next to West Brompton underground station which is on the District Line.
Also please note that the entrance will be open from 6:00 pm and the concert will start at 6:20 pm. This will give us enough time for everyone to arrive, grab their cocktails and take their seats.
Beethoven string quartet no 14 in C sharp minor, opus 131.
Written in 1826, the year before he died, by a profoundly deaf Beethoven its first movement, according to Richard Wagner, "reveals the most melancholy sentiment expressed in music". On hearing the first performance of the piece Franz Schubert said "after this, what is there left for us to write?" When he was himself dying in 1828, Schubert's last request was to hear the quartet played. Beethoven rated it as his most perfect work.
Shostakovich string quartet no 13 in B flat minor, opus 138.
This one-movement, bleak, harrowing "languid dance of death" was written in hospital in 1970 when the ailing Shostakovich was becoming increasingly preoccupied with his own mortality. In the quartet's central section (dubbed a "jam session from Hell" by violinist Eugene Drucker) the performers are instructed to rap on their instruments with their bows, creating an effect like nails being hammered down on a coffin lid. Shostakovich died of lung cancer in 1975.
Tickets £12 including a Hendrick's Gin Cocktail. Please click here to buy.
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