You alone know how to unearth What is buried deep.
You languish, moan, are overcome
And then become Cold, and out the window you go. 
Anna Akhmatova To Music

The string quartet stands at the heart of chamber music and for quartet-lovers, the world begins with Haydn, so he is the perfect composer to begin our nine-day celebration of chamber music. Haydn’s Opus 50 quartets are his answer to the six famous quartets that Mozart dedicated to him and we open our Festival with his thrilling response to Mozart’s Dissonance Quartet.

The Festival has commissioned the young Cork composer, Sam Perkin, to write a work for solo violin for the electrifying New York violinist, Miranda Cuckson. Another exciting rising star is the Franco-Belgian cellist, Camille Thomas, who will give a rare performance of Ysaÿe’s Sonata for solo cello, mirroring a later Festival concert featuring all six of his better-known solo violin Sonatas.

Shostakovich’s Eleventh Quartet is the first of four dedicated to individual members of the Beethoven Quartet, who premiered so many of his quartets. It is cast in the mood of his Seventh Quartet that he wrote in memory of his first wife, not so much in sorrow but more a reminder of their lives. It is epigrammatically brief with seven perfectly crafted movements flowing into each other without a break, bringing the concert to a quiet, reflective close. 

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