Concert at St Christopher’s Hospice
On Thursday the 4th of March, we were pleased to perform as part of the Dame Cicely Saunders Concert series held at St Christopher’s Hospice in Sydenham, South London. The concert hall at the venue seats approximately 70 audience members and provides anintimate atmosphere where performers and audience feel as if the music is being [...]
Concert at St Michael at the North Gate - 20th July 09.
On Monday we returned to the church of St Michael at the North Gate in Oxford to give a lunchtime recital as part of their ‘Music on Mondays’ concert series.
The concerts are an opportunity for ensembles and musicians to perform works of their own choice, so we chose to give the first airing to the [...]
Violent and Tormented!
Sunday was a busy day with a trip to MBJ studios in the morning to record some more samples for the string quartet playlist page. We opted to record some real wedding favourites such as Pachelbels Canon, the Bridal Chorus, Bridal March and a hymn! As usual, we kept studio time to a minimum and recorded [...]
Spohr, Gade and a huge Viola Cadenza!
Today we managed to play through seven complete works - two for string quartet, then as Louise (violinist) had to leave early, we tried out a further five for string trio.
Firstly, it was a special moment to finally play the Spohr Quartet in G (Op. 82 no. 2) - having spent so many hours re-setting the score [...]
Spohr Quartet Opus 82. no. 2 - score finished!
Well after about 40 hours of painstaking work, I’ve finally finished re-setting the illegible but under-rated quartet by Spohr (Op. 82. no. 2) using Sibelius software.
The only previously available edition by Schlesinger has been out of print for a long time - and it contained lots of errors, wrong notes and mistakes in phrasing - some [...]
Bruch, Coleridge - Taylor, Spohr, D’Indy
This week we seized another opportunity to get together for a sociable day of chamber music and explore some more pieces. Whereas last week I’d played the first violin parts and Louise had played second violin, we kept it interesting by swapping over today.
Playing second violin in the quartet is a completely different experience as [...]
Spohr String Quartet in G (Op. 82 no. 2)
Occasionally, you take on a task which at first seems relatively straightforward, but unfolds to become quite an endurance test…..
In our exploration of Spohr’s string quartets we have discovered some real gems. I’d put them in a bracket of well deserving but neglected works that really reward both listeners and players - they are creatively written, [...]
