大象传媒

Aberystwyth MusicFest, live at St David's Hall, Cardiff. This week's series highlighting Wales's music festivals moves to the seaside town of Aberystwyth on the west coast of Wales. A casualty of the pandemic, MusicFest wasn't able to run its usual programme of concerts in the summer. The Sacconi quartet have enjoyed a long association with the festival and were due to appear in 2020. They open their recital with one of Haydn's late masterpieces. The fifth of his Opus 76 series of quartets breaks with tradition in the first movement, with a conclusion that's full of Haydn's trademark high jinks. Poignantly, the ensemble premiered Welsh composer Alun Hoddinott's Music for String Quartet on the day of the composer's death, 11th March 2008. They conclude with Shostakovich's Quartet in C minor, sometimes known as the Dresden, the city where he was when he wrote it in just three days in 1960. Belying its rather sombre mood, it's become one of the composer's most popular works.

Introduced by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Haydn: String Quartet in D, Op 76 No 5
Hoddinott: Music for String Quartet
Shostakovich: String Quartet No 8 in C minor, Op 110