REVOLUTIONARIES: String Quartets and Piano Trios Coffee Concert

Students from Birmingham Conservatoire Strings and Piano Departments

Shostakovich String Quartet No.7 in F sharp minor Op.108
i Allegretto
ii Lento
iii Allegro
Smetana String Quartet No.1 in E minor, ‘From My Life’
iii Largo sostenuto
Bartók Duos (selection)
Beethoven String Quartet No.2 in G major, Op.18, No.2
i Allegro
ii Adagio cantabile
iii Scherzo: Allegro
iv Allegro molto, quasi presto

Join us for the second of the festival’s coffee concerts. Shostakovich’s 7th Quartet, after a deceptively mild opening, reveals itself as a revolutionary and shocking work. Smetana’s 1st Quartet, titled From My Life, is the first overtly autobiographical quartet and Michael Nyman brings a totally fresh sound to the Quartet genre. 

Beethoven’s early G major Quartet, known in Germany as the Compliments quartet is unusual for Beethoven in being almost entirely non-confrontational and good-humoured.