Marmen Quartet
Johannes Marmen violin
Laia Valentine Braun violin
Bryony Gibson-Corish viola
Sinéad O’Halloran cello

Programme
Bartók Quartet No.4 in C major [1928]
Ian Wilson ‘Rossiniana’ [2018]
Beethoven Quartet Op.59 No. 2 ‘Rasoumovsky’ [1808]

Cork cellist Sinéad O’Halloran joined the Marmen Quartet in June of 2021 at a time when the quartet’s international star continues to rise, with a busy schedule including concerts at the Berlin Philharmonic, the BBC Proms and the Lucerne Festival. Their programme opens with one of Bartók’s greatest and most riveting masterpieces, its tightly symmetrical structure centred on a deeply atmospheric central movement. Ian Wilson’s slick and entertaining collage of famous Rossini themes is followed by Beethoven’s towering second ‘Rasoumovsky’ quartet with, at its heart, a rapturous slow movement inspired by contemplation of the starry firmament.

Presented by NCH in association with the National String Quartet Foundation