Contempo Quartet – “Of Wood & Water”

Haydn’s brilliant and uplifting Op.1 No.1, the first of his sixty-eight extraordinary string quartets which have inspired composers, musicians and audiences ever since.Judith Ring’s Of Woods and Waterwas written in 2022 for the Appalachian Chamber Music Festival in Virginia, USA. It pays homage to two folks tunes, one of Irish origin and one of American origin – Cooney’s Reel and Old Joe Clark

Dvořák’s Cypresses isa collection of love songs arranged for string quartet by the composer, and Janáček’s On an overgrown path is a series of piano pieces, also arranged for quartet, which contain distant reminiscences… so dear to me that I do not think they will ever vanish.

Beethoven wrote three of his best loved and most serene masterpieces in 1809, the Emperor piano concerto, the piano sonata Les Adieux and this magnificent quartet, all in the warm and radiant key of E flat major. The quartet is full of confidence, lyricism and dramatic contrasts, the work of our greatest composer at the height of his powers.

Doors Open 7.30pm
Tickets €18/€16 (+booking fees)