A Shostakovich tasting menu with the Carducci Quartet and Anton Lesser at Turner Sims

La celebración en Colombia de los 40 años de muerte del compositor ruso estuvo marcada por interpretaciones en las que la planeación de las ideas musicales era tan clara que cada nuevo pasaje redactaba en su avance una historia.

Song cycles by Ralph Vaughan Williams and Ernest Chausson are paired at the Barbican.

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. 

Russian composer Alexander Raskatov visits Ireland for a concert of his own works, including the epic string quartet cycle Monk's Music. A fascinating cross-section of the composer's work, well played to a sizeable and enthusiastic local audience.

The Carducci Quartet’s appearance in the Holywell Music Room marked the halfway point in the Oxford Coffee Concert’s Autumn series. This late-morning concert saw the ensemble pair two D major quartets, from 1781 and 1949. It was the latter which received the more convincing performance, with the quartet clearly more engaged with Shostakovich’s troubled utterance than Haydn’s lean textures.

The Benjamin Britten centenary has inspired many groups into performing his works. The opera Noye’s Fludde was written to give amateur children a chance to perform and engage in operatic music alongside a smaller group of adult professional soloists. This performance was part of the Cheltenham Music Festival as their nod to Britten in the composer’s special year.