BLUEPRINT

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN String Quartet No.6, Op.18, No.6 ^
CAROLINE SHAW “Blueprint”
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN String Quartet No.16 in F major, Op.135 ^

^ These works comprise the St Johns Southgate 60 min concert program

HILL HOUSE MUSIC • SUNDAY 28 JULY, 2PM

MACEDON MUSIC • SUNDAY 4 AUGUST, 2.30PM SOLD OUT

ST JOHNS SOUTHGATE • WEDNESDAY 7 AUGUST, 1PM
(approx 60 min performance, plus post-concert Q&A)

MONTSALVAT BARN GALLERY • SUNDAY 11 AUGUST, 2.30PM
(approx 120 min performance, including interval)

PRIMROSE POTTER SALON • MONDAY 12 AUGUST, 7PM
(approx 120 min performance, including interval)

Visit FQ Digital to relive the works in this concert program, on demand viewing from Monday 26 August.

“The more I play Beethoven, especially his symphonies and string quartets, the affinity as a teenager I felt for him as the unruly rebel in an old picture on my bedroom wall becomes an affinity with his uncompromising nature and the complete humanity of his composition. It’s always a special thrill to play a program containing a Beethoven quartet and it will be twice the thrill to play this program containing two! Opus 135, his last quartet, is especially close to my heart, not only because it was a very useful competition piece in my youth but especially because of the crazily whacky Scherzo movement with rhythmic tricks galore, not to mention 1st violin acrobatics in the Trio, followed by the devastatingly touching slow movement in the unexpected, warm key of D flat major. It’s often said that this last quartet was the beginning of a new period for Beethoven but we’ll never know for sure. It certainly is quite different from the “late” quartets that preceded it. To begin the concert, Beethoven’s joyous and playful Opus 18 No. 6 quartet is paired with a harmonic distillation of and homage to it by the currently very popular American composer, Caroline Shaw.”

WILMA SMITH, VIOLIN