Beethoven…… and His Secretary
We’re pleased to announce that we’ll be giving our first coffee concert at the Red Hedgehog in Highgate on the 8th of May. The Red Hedgehog is an intimate chamber music and arts venue which is located opposite Highgate tube station in London, making it easily accessible by public transport. As this will be a coffee concert, the entrance price of £12.00 includes coffee and cake during the interval where audience members will have a chance to socialise and chat to the musicians.
As ever, we’ll be presenting the concert in a very accessible way and will talk a little about each of the string quartets we’ll be playing. As one of our main interests is in performing neglected works, we’ll be playing a beautiful, sunny quartet by Ferdinand Ries (1784-1838) and a quartet by one of his teachers who needs no introduction, Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827). The concert will be called ‘Beethoven and his Secretary’ because Ries acted as Beethoven’s secretary and copyist before becoming highly regarded and established as a composer in his own right.
Like many respected composers of the period, Ries was overshadowed by the presence of Beethoven and sadly man of his works are rarely played, despite being inventive, witty, original and beguiling. The string quartet that we’ll be playing by Ries is his Op. 70 no. 2 in G major - an optimistic and expansive work that will serve as a good introduction to Ries for those audience members who are unfamiliar with his works.
The Beethoven piece will be his string quartet no. 1 in F Op. 18 - which despite being known as his first string quartet is in fact the second quartet that he composed.
As the Red Hedgehog is an intimate venue seating approximately 90-100 people, tickets will be available on a first come first served basis, by calling the box office on 0208 348 5050.
We are very much looking forward to playing at the Red Hedgehog and will be returning there for an evening performance of one of our Christmas concerts on the 15th December 2011.
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