Gildas String Quartet

With  Florence Cooke stepping in at short notice for Sophie Cameron, the Gildas Quartet sensibly reversed their programme and began with a well-known Schubert fragment, the energetic and lyrical ‘Quartetsatz’.

Brighton-born Frank Bridge’s work is not so familiar yet the ‘Three Idylls for String Quartet’ are very accessible, especially when accompanied by such helpful programme notes. Indeed, they are beautiful, so why aren’t they performed more often? They led smoothly into the more complex but just as stimulating Fourth String Quartet. Thank you Gildas for starting a trend just in time for the 75th anniversary of Bridge’s death (January 2016).

Studio Theatre, Brighton Dome, 15 May 2014
Rating:
Andrew Connal