AUTUMN 2023 SEASON OVERVIEW
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Carducci Quartet (6-10 September)
Contempo Quartet (20-24 September)
Vanbrugh & Friends (29 Sept - 1 October)
Esposito Quartet (4-8 October)
Marmen Quartet (18-22 October)
Sonoro Quartet (1-5 November)
Gealán Quartet (7-12 November)
Vanbrugh & Friends (17-19 & 28 November)
Piatti Quartet (24-26 November)
Ficino Quartet (6-10 December)

Here’s a video summary of the autumn season

The Vanbrugh & Friends

Keith Pascoe, violin
Marja Gaynor, violin
Simon Aspell, viola
Ed Creedon, viola
Christopher Marwood, cello
Stéphane Petiet, double bass

Beethoven - String Quintet Op.104 [1819]
Dvořák - String Quintet Op.77 [1875]

The Vanbrugh & Friends present two favourite works from the extended chamber music repertoire. Beethoven wrote his darkly beautiful C minor piano trio Op.1 No.3 in 1795 and it became one of his most popular chamber works. He published this string quintet arrangement in 1819. Dvořák’s Op.77 quintet, written in 1875 just as he was on the brink of worldwide stardom, adds the depth of the double bass to the instruments of the string quartet and together with Dvořák’s love of melody and rhythmic vitality, lets loose a glorious and joyful musical celebration.

Concert programme UCC available for download here
Concert programme other venues available here

The National String Quartet Foundation is Chamber Music Partner to UCC

Esposito Quartet

Mia Cooper, violin
Anna Cashell, violin
Joachim Roewer, viola
William Butt, cello

Haydn - Quartet Op.17 No.5 [1771]
Kinsella - Quartet No.3 [1977]
Rhiannon Giddens - At the purchaser's option [2016]
Brahms - Quartet in B flat major Op.67 [1875]

The Esposito Quartet is one of our musical treasures, four extraordinary musicians who have been playing as a quartet since 2010. For this tour they feature one of John Kinsella’s finest works, his third quartet, written in 1977 during the final illness of his first wife. Grammy award-winning Rhiannon Giddens’ At the purchaser's option is based on a song from her album Freedom Highway and is one of the Kronos Quartet’s 50 for the Future, an eclectic collection of new works for string quartet. The concerts open with yet another entertaining quartet by Haydn and end with one of Brahms’ most exuberant and joyful works, his B flat major quartet Op.67.

Concert programme now available for download here

Read more about composer John Kinsella here

Gealán Quartet

Gina Maria McGuinness, violin
Eoin Ducrot, violin
Fiachra de hOra, viola
Paul Grennan, cello

Schumann - Quartet in A minor Op.41 No.1 [1842]
Michael Doherty - Quartet No.3 † [2023]
Shostakovich - Quartet No.8 [1960]

† First performances. Commissioned by the Gealán Quartet

The Gealán Quartet returns for their second tour for the Foundation with a fascinating programme featuring a new quartet by Derry composer Michael Doherty. Michael has a busy career as composer and orchestrator for films and TV series, as well as for the concert hall. Schumann wrote his gorgeous A minor quartet just seventeen years after Beethoven’s last quartets and the spirit of the master is clearly still present, but there is also some of the lightness of touch of the quartet’s dedicatee Mendelssohn as well as glimpses of the future richness and density of Brahms’ great chamber works. Shostakovich wrote his heart-rending eighth quartet in Dresden in 1960. Its official dedication to ‘the victims of fascism and war’ was imposed by the Soviet authorities and disguised a wider dedication to victims of all totalitarianism, Shostakovich himself among them.

Concert programme (all venues) is available for download by clicking here

Read more about composer Michael Doherty here

The Vanbrugh & Friends

Keith Pascoe, violin
Marja Gaynor, violin
Simon Aspell, viola
Ed Creedon, viola
Christopher Marwood, cello

Beethoven - String Quintet Op.104 [1819]
Brahms - String Quintet Op.111 [1890]

The Vanbrugh and their guests present two of the great works from the extended chamber music repertoire. Beethoven wrote his darkly beautiful C minor piano trio Op.1 No.3 in 1795 and it became one of his most popular chamber works. He published this string quintet arrangement in 1819. Brahms’ magnificent 1890 string quintet Op.111 started life in the composer’s sketches for a fifth symphony and its final form retains an orchestral grandeur, both in structure and in texture. This is truly one of the finest works in the chamber music repertoire, exuberant, elegant, subtle, original and unmistakably Brahms.

The National String Quartet Foundation is Chamber Music Partner to UCC

CONCERT PROGRAMMES FOR DOWNLOAD

Cork UCC
Banteer, Ennis, Leap
Castleconnell

Piatti Quartet

Michael Trainor, violin
Emily Holland, violin
Miguel Sobrinho, viola
Jessie Ann Richardson, cello

Rachmaninov - String Quartet No.1 [1890] (Triskel only)
Smetana - Quartet No.1 ‘From My Life’ [1876] (Kilkenny, Birr, Dublin)
Deirdre Gribbin - ‘Somewhere I have never travelled’ † [2015]
Dvořák - String Quartet in G major Op.106 [1895]

† Irish premiere performances

The acclaimed Piatti Quartet is riding high at the moment with accolades for recent recordings and a new appointment as resident quartet at London’s prestigious King’s Place. They return to Ireland with Dvořák’s magnificent G major string quartet, paired with Smetana’s autobiographical quartet ‘From My Life. Dvořák himself performed as violist in the 1878 premiere of this extraordinary quartet which through its four movements truly conveys a sense of the span of a lifetime. For Cork’s shorter lunchtime concert the Piatti will replace the Smetana with no less of a treat in Rachmaninov’s lovely early string quartet. Deirdre Gribbin’s ‘Somewhere I have never travelled’ is one of her most beautiful creations, full of magical, ethereal textures and it completes these terrific programmes.

Read more about composer Deirdre Gribbin here

Concert programmes for download:

CONCERT PROGRAMME TRISKEL
CONCERT PROGRAMME OTHER VENUES

Ficino Quartet

Elaine Clark, violin
Hugh Murray, violin
Nathan Sherman, viola
Ailbhe McDonagh, cello

Osvaldo Golijov - Tenebrae [2000]
Ailbhe McDonagh - Quartet No.2 The Lore Quartet † [2023]
Shostakovich - Quartet No.7 [1960]
Brahms - Quartet in A minor Op.51/2 [1876]

† First performances. Commissioned by the National String Quartet Foundation with funds from the Arts Council of Ireland

Cellist-composer Ailbhe McDonagh presents her newly commissioned second string quartet on this tour by the Ficino Quartet. It was selected by leading international music magazine The Strad as’premiere of the month’. Osvaldo Golijov’s hauntingly beautiful Tenebrae reflects both the brutality of human conflict and the parallel perspective of the earth’s serene progress through space. Shostakovich’s short and enigmatic seventh quartet was dedicated to his first wife who had died six years earlier and the concerts end with Brahms’ glorious masterpiece, his A minor quartet Op.51 No.2

Read more about composer Ailbhe McDonagh here

CONCERT PROGRAMME TRISKEL
CONCERT PROGRAMME ALL OTHER VENUES