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Four ways to hear heaven

19/05/2009

They are all made of wood, they all have strings and are played with a bow, and, when they come together, they are capable of moving listeners to tears and to laughter, revealing the summits of joy and the depths of despair.

The string quartet of two violins, viola and cello has been used to make some of the most sublime and profound music of the last 300 years.

String quartet music has always played a part in the Lichfield Festival and this year offers a particularly strong line-up of young quartets.

Festival Director Richard Hawley said: "These concerts let you get right up close to the music and hear musicians with amazing skills working with each other in an almost telepathic way.

"Even if you have never heard a string quartet play before, I urge you to give them a try. This is timeless music of great beauty and emotion."

Headlining the programme with a major Lichfield Cathedral concert on Monday 13 July are the Australian String Quartet, who will be playing works by Haydn, the composer who could be said to have "invented" the string quartet, Mendelssohn and Peter Sculthorpe. Sculthorpe is an Australian composer who was composer in residence in Lichfield in 2004 and writes highly accessible musix, strongly evocative of the landscape of his homeland.

Giving two afternoon concerts on the first weekend of the Festival are the Elias String Quartet, favourites here on previous visits. They play more Haydn, as well as pieces by Schubert and Benjamin Britten, in the charming surroundings of St Michael's Church in Lichfield.

The Barbirolli Quartet will be playing Beethoven, Brahms and Haydn again in the ballroom of Swinfen Hall Hotel at lunchtime on Wednesday 15 July, and the Badke Quartet will play Mozart, Schumann and Haydn at St Chad's Church in Lichfield on the afternoon of Thursday 16 July.

Tickets can be booked for all these events in person at the Lichfield Garrick Theatre, by phone on 01543 412121 or online at www.lichfieldfestival.org.

Click here for the full programme of this year's Festival.  

 

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