The first in a concert series celebrating the Brodsky Quartet’s longstanding relationship with Kings Place, featuring a genre-spanning programme and their electrifying collaboration with the legendary Sir Willard White.

This concert revisits highlights from the Brodsky Quartet’s ten-year residency at Kings Place and pays homage to the Hollywood Quartet’s 1950s recordings with Frank Sinatra, including the iconic Close to You.

The wide-ranging, American-themed programme features Barber’s Dover Beach, songs by Copland, Kern, Gershwin, as well as Britten folk settings, and Schubert Lieder including The Trout and Death and the Maiden. With highlights from Porgy and Bess, Show Boat, Hoedown, and My Way, this eclectic mix showcases the remarkable versatility of the Brodsky Quartet and opera legend Sir Willard White – whose long-standing partnership continues to captivate audiences around the world.

This event will last for approximately 1 hour and 50 minutes, including an interval.

About the Brodsky Quartet

Bringing an unrivalled authority to the performance of the string quartet repertoire, since their formation in 1972 the Brodsky Quartet have performed over 3,500 concerts on the major stages of the world and have released more than 70 recordings. A natural curiosity and an insatiable desire to explore has propelled the group in a number of artistic directions and continues to ensure them not only a prominent presence on the international chamber music scene, but also a rich and varied musical existence. Their energy and craftsmanship have attracted numerous awards and accolades worldwide, while their ongoing educational work provides a vehicle to pass on experience and stay in touch with the next generation.

Having recently celebrated their 50th anniversary, the Brodsky Quartet continue to maintain a busy international schedule, touring major festivals and venues across Australasia, the Americas, Asia, South Africa, Europe and the UK, where they are based. Renowned for their complete quartet cycles, they have performed the works of Schubert, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Britten, Schoenberg, Zemlinsky, Webern and Bartók. However, it is their association with Shostakovich that stands out: their landmark 2012 performance of the complete string quartets at Kings Place earned them the title of Artistic Associate and launched a decade-long residency, culminating in a repeat of the full cycle over two days. Fittingly, they now offer these immersive Shostakovich cycles to audiences worldwide.

Their extensive discography includes a celebrated partnership with Chandos Records, featuring a live Shostakovich cycle, works by Brahms, Elgar, Janáček, Debussy and others, and a critically acclaimed set of Beethoven’s Late Quartets (2020). Recent releases marking their 50th anniversary include Schubert Quintet with Laura van der Heijden, Rocking Horse Road with Jacqui Dankworth, and Golden Oldies, a collection of favourite encores. Homage to Bach features premiere recordings of Bach’s Solo Violin Sonatas arranged by Paul Cassidy. The Quartet’s recordings and performances are regularly broadcast worldwide. They have received multiple awards, including the Diapason d’Or, CHOC du Monde de la Musique, and a Royal Philharmonic Society Award for innovation in programming. Known for championing leading composers and forging genre-crossing collaborations, the Brodsky Quartet remain at the forefront of chamber music worldwide.

The quartet have taught at many international chamber music courses and have held residencies in several music institutes including, at the start of their career, the first such post at the University of Cambridge and latterly at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where they are visiting International Fellows in Chamber Music. They were awarded Honorary Doctorates by the University of Kent and an Honorary Fellowship at the University of Teesside, where they were founded. The quartet took their name from the great Russian violinist Adolf Brodsky, the dedicatee of Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto and a passionate chamber musician. Krysia Osostowicz plays a violin made by Francesco Gofriller, 1720; Ian Belton’s violin is by Giovanni Paolo Maggini, c.1615. Paul Cassidy plays on La Delfina viola, c.1720, courtesy of Sra. Delfina Entrecanales and Jacqueline Thomas’s cello is by Thomas Perry of Dublin, 1785.

Reviews

‘They are one of a handful of string quartets that have come to represent an elite in redefining the nature and function of a string quartet ensemble.’ The Scottish Herald

‘Playing with a spirit so transformational you felt they were actually improving the world’ The Strad

About Sir Willard White

One of the best-loved and most versatile opera stars of the last 40 years, Sir Willard White’s illustrious career has taken him to the most prestigious opera houses and concert halls throughout the world, collaborating with conductors, directors and orchestras of the highest calibre.

Sir Willard White was born in Jamaica, where he commenced his musical training at the Jamaican School of Music and then went on to the Juilliard School in New York. Since his operatic debut with the New York City Opera in 1974, he has sung regularly at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera, New York, English National Opera, San Francisco Opera, the opera houses of Munich, Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Geneva, Hamburg, Los Angeles, Madrid, Paris, and at the Glyndebourne, Aix-en-Provence and Salzburg festivals. In 1989, White performed the role of Othello in Trevor Nunn’s production for the Royal Shakespeare Company, alongside Sir Ian McKellen as Iago and Imogen Stubbs as Desdemona.

On the concert platform, White sings regularly with the world’s major conductors and orchestras, including the London Symphony, London Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, the Hallé, Royal Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, La Scala, Boston Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Cleveland orchestras and the Berliner Philharmoniker, and he has appeared as soloist many times at the BBC Proms, including the First and Last Night of the Proms and at the Proms in the Park. Highlights include, Tiresias and Messenger in Stravinsky Oedipus Rex with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the San Francisco Symphony & Philharmonia Orchestra, Méphistophélès in La Damnation de Faust with the Cleveland Orchestra and at the Verbier Festival with Charles Dutoit, Golaud in Pélleas et Mélisande with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the title role in Bluebeard’s Castle with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall and the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Esa-Pekka Salonen, Marke in Wagner Tristan und Isolde Act II under Gergiev, and a concert performance of Pélleas et Mélisande (Arkel) and Porgy and Bess (Porgy) in concert with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Sir Simon Rattle.

Sir Willard White was awarded the CBE in 1995 and was knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2004, he was named Chevalier de la Legion D’honneur in France in 2023 for his contributions to opera, both on the French and international stages.

Reviews

‘…the superlative Willard White still gives a lesson in vocal class…’ Concertonet.com

‘Sir Willard has such presence, he dominates the scene’ The Opera Critic