Brodsky Quartet, Stokesley Methodist Church, 26 Nov 3pm

Teesside Music Society

Teesside's finest make a swift and welcome return following their last concert with us in 2021. Viola player Paul Cassidy shows his musical arrangement skills in the second piece of Rachmaninov performed tonight. Britten's restless first string quartet is paired with Janacek's second quartet - a work inspired by love and referred to by the composer as "Intimate Letters". Pieces by Stravinsky and Shostakovich complete the vigorous and colourful musical picture.

Following the concert, Jaqueline Thomas will be taking about her book "Jacksons, Monk & Rowe and the Brodsky Quartet - The Formative Years". Jacqueline Thomas is the little girl who began this quartet and she remains its cellist to this day. Her memoir tells the story of the first ten formative years, with insight into the passion and fervour surrounding music-making on all levels, many amusing and sometimes hilarious extracts from her teen diaries, the single-minded obsession with their Art and the ambition to make it a success. With a distinct flavour of the 1970s, her teen-self also grapples with the gender inequalities endemic in the music world back then.

Programme:

• Stravinsky Three Pieces
• Rachmaninov Two Movements No. 2
• Britten String Quartet No. 1
• Shostakovich Two Pieces
• Rachmaninov Vocalise (arr. Paul Cassidy)
• Janacek String Quartet No. 2