A Curious Invitation present London Month of the Dead
DANSE MACABRE
A torchlit walk and candlelit concert of Saint-Saëns' Danse Macabre & String Quartet No 3 by Shostakovich
On Saturday 19th October 2024 at 8:00 pm

The Danse Macabre was a medieval masque in which Death invites people from all stations of life, from pope to pauper, to dance with him in an infernal conga line to the grave, symbolising the futility of all earthly vanities. Camille Saint-Saëns’s tone poem Danse Macabre evokes the legend of how at midnight on Halloween each year Death appears with his violin and summons the dead from their graves.

The infallibly gloomy and weird Dmitri Shostakovich’s 3rd string quartet in F major was written in 1946 and is a requiem to the Second World War.

Remember, you haven’t heard classical music until you’re heard it performed by candlelight in a cemetery, surrounded by 30,000 eavesdropping corpses. So enter the cemetery at sundown and proceed at your peril in a procession through the tombstones to the chapel where you can quell your quaking spirits with a Victorian punch.

Tickets £20 including a delightful gin cocktail. Please click here to purchase

The Idalia Quartet
Initially formed at the Royal College of Music Junior Department in 2022, the Idalia Quartet is comprised of scholarship students currently studying at the Royal Academy of Music. They have performed at Wigmore Hall and gave the UK premiere of Steven Goss’ guitar quintet ‘Wynwood Walls’ in February 2023. In October 2024, they will make their debut as part of the Academy Manson Ensemble, performing a completely contemporary programme which will include the world premiere of ‘Substrata’ by Andrea Balency-Béarn and the UK premiere of Abracadabra (Suncatchers) for 11 virtuosi by Augusta Read Thomas in the prestigious Duke’s Hall.

The Venue - Brompton Cemetery