BREMF – Consone Quartet

Stretching the remit of early music, ‘The Evolution of the Classical String Quartet’ illustrated its growth from Baroque roots like Scarlatti’s ‘Sonata a Quattro’ into the young Haydn’s charming first quartet, half Baroque/half Classical. We followed this development through Boccherini to Beethoven’s impressive first attempt. Carefully explained in the notes and introductions, the performance revealed so much about the origins of this favoured genre. Consone Quartet’s gentle delivery comes with a fiery enthusiasm. The period instruments and particularly the authentic gut strings required more than the usual amount of tuning but their seductive sound in the supportive acoustic was delightful.

St Paul’s Church, 28 October 2017

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