Brentano String Quartet

A programme of

BRITTEN Quartet No 3, Op 94
MENDELSSOHN Quartet No 1 in E flat, Op 12

The brilliance of youth and the wisdom of old age shine out here as the Brentano Quartet offer Mendelssohn’s first quartet (written in his 20th year) and Britten’s last. Mendelssohn has all the happiness and sunshine you might expect but also shows how deeply he studied Beethoven’s quartets. Britten’s third quartet is one of his absolute masterpieces. Among the very latest of his works, it is a miracle of spectacular string writing, which holds some of his most evocative and lyrical music. It closes with a sublime love-song to a city he loved – ‘La Serenissima’ (Venice).