Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | English | String Quartet no. 9 in E flat major, Op.117

The Brodsky Quartet deliver deeply moving performances of all 15 Shostakovich string quartets, with added value and insight from writers Elizabeth Wilson and Marina Frolova-Walker. 

Haydn, Shostakovich and Smetana laid bare at Wigmore Hall. 

Performed chronologically in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, The Globe’s candlelit Jacobean theatre, the 15 Shostakovich string quartets made an astonishing impression in such concentrated form. 

Have you been to Kings Place yet? London’s newest concert hall opened in 2008 and is rapidly building a reputation as a vibrant cultural centre with a phenomenal acoustic and a friendly smile. If you haven’t been yet, I urge you to select a good programme – this weekend’s Shostakovich cycle with the Brodsky Quartet was ideal – and head to the concert hall at King’s Cross.

From across the centuries, the quartets of Beethoven and Shostakovich have come to be regarded as the twin pillars of the quartet repertoire. Think of them as the New Testament and the Old Testament. The Pacifica Quartet offered a program that sandwiched Shostakovich with a pair of quartets by Beethoven.The String Quartet No.