11:30am    Discussion between Elizabeth Wilson and the Brodsky Quartet

12:15pm    Interval

12:30pm  Shostakovich String Quartets Nos. 11 & 12

Brodsky Quartet celebrate their 50th anniversary with a complete cycle of Shostakovich’s String Quartets across one weekend, played in the intimacy of Hall One, interleaved with talks.

The first two of the Sunday concerts explore the four quartets dedicated to members of the Beethoven Quartet, the composer’s close friends and colleagues, who premiered almost all of Shostakovich’s quartets. Each of these four – known as the Quartet of Quartets, Nos. 11, 12, 13 and 14 – is dedicated to a different member of the group. For this special set-within-the-set, we present an extended discussion between Elizabeth Wilson and all the members of the Brodsky Quartet, exploring the people behind the dedications and how they inspired the music.

The 45-minute discussion will be followed by an interval, after which Quartets Nos. 11 and 12 (dedicated to the two violinists) will be performed.

This concert will last approx. 2hrs including an interval

In part 6 of the cycle, at 2.30pm, you’ll hear performances of String Quartets Nos. 13 and 14, written for the violist and cellist respectively. Book tickets for the 2.30pm concert.

This concert forms part of Brodsky Quartet’s weekend celebration of all of Shostakovich’s String Quartets. See details for The Complete Shostakovich Quartets.

Elizabeth Wilson is the author of Shostakovich- A Life Remembered, considered by many to be the most vivid, informative and revealing biography of the composer. As a cellist, she studied in Moscow with Mstislav Rostropovich – during which time she encountered Shostakovich, and attended the premières of many of his later works.  As a performer she has worked with such major composers as Arvo Part, Alfred Schnittke and James MacMillan, and as a biographer has also written of Jacqueline Du Pre and her teacher Rostropovich. Her most recent book, Playing with Fire, is devoted to the life and times of the maverick Soviet pianist Maria Yudina, friend and champion of Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Hindemith and Stravinsky.