Sound Unwrapped: Gildas Quartet Britten no. 3 in Surround Sound

We welcome back the  Gildas  Quartet for a special memorised performance of Britten’s Quartet No. 3 in the round, following their sold-out Surround Sound Session earlier this year.

Determined to bring the visceral experience of string quartet performance to audiences at close quarters, the Gildas  Quartet created their immersive project Surround Sound Sessions. Each performance in this series brings a single great quartet work to listeners, inviting them to sit literally in ‘surround sound’ and experience the drama from the centre of the ensemble. In this performance the quartet will explore Britten’s valedictory and deeply moving third quartet, his last instrumental work. You will get to know the piece as the quartet deconstruct and demonstrate aspects of the music. A complete memorised performance of the Britten ends the concert, with the audience surrounding the quartet.

‘We wanted to find a way to open up the quartet to audiences without the distance of a concert platform. In this intimate performance the listener is seated in the middle, with the quartet spaced out so that the audience is immersed from all sides. This way dialogue and textures are opened up like never before, and you experience the full drama of the music unfolding around you in live ‘surround sound’. Gildas Quartet