Ensemble explores historical performance with works spanning three centuries
THE Lumiere Quartet presents an evening of chamber music on Thursday 5 February at 8pm, exploring the distinctive soundworld created by performing on gut strings with classical bows rather than modern steel strings.
Presented by the National String Quartet Foundation, the concert features works by Maddalena Lombardini, Haydn, Donnacha Dennehy and Beethoven, offering audiences an authentic glimpse into how classical quartets would have sounded in their own time.
The ensemble comprises Ioana Petcu-Colan and Elaine Clark on violin, Nathan Sherman on viola, and Carina Drury on cello. Their programme opens with Lombardini’s String Quartet No 3 in G minor, composed around 1765. Born in Venice in 1745, Lombardini achieved renown across Europe as a violinist, singer and composer. Her six elegant and lyrical quartets, published in 1769, pre-date most of Haydn’s mature works in the genre.
Haydn’s String Quartet in D minor Op 76 No 2 “Fifths” from 1797 represents the composer at the height of his powers. Written as part of his final complete set of quartets for sizeable public audiences befitting his fame, the work features a virtuosic finale with a distinctly Hungarian flavour.
The programme includes a contemporary voice with Donnacha Dennehy’s Pushpulling from 2007. The composer describes the work’s poignancy of ever-elongating pushes away from home, only to return, as sure as night follows day, to the same position again.
Concluding the evening is Beethoven’s String Quartet in F major Op 18 No 1, written in 1798-1800 when the composer was just 28 years old. Though composed only a year or two after the Haydn quartet, Beethoven’s first set of quartets already explores boldly original directions. At the work’s heart lies a slow movement of great drama and emotional power, inspired by the tomb scene from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
Tickets are priced at €20, with a concession rate of €18 available.