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From Kurtág’s whispered fragments to Reich’s poignant memorialisation of 9/11, the Carducci Quartet deliver a programme of remarkable emotional range and intensity.

A tasting menu of string quartet movements interspersed with readings made for an absorbing afternoon. 

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.