Heaven and Earth
‘Heavenly melodies and Earthly noise’
Beethoven and Shostakovich for string quartet
Beethoven, String Quartet Opus 59, No.1 in F major, 1805-6
Shostakovich, String Quartet No.8, 1960
Concert #1
Saturday 3 September, 2.30pm
Mulberry Manse, 8 Roses Lane, Clunes
Concert #2
Friday 23 Sept, 7.30pm
Northern Arts Hotel, 359 Barker St, Castlemaine
Castlemaine Chamber Players takes you on an emotional journey with their passionate performance of these masterworks.
Beethoven and Shostakovich each wrote 15 or more quartets, and these are from the middle period of both composers’ careers.
Beethoven’s Opus 59 Rasumovsky quartets were written in 1805, around the time of his third symphony, the Eroica. You’ll hear the symphonic influence in this quartet.
Shostakovich’s Opus 8 quartet, with poignant personal slow movements and a furious driving fast Allegro, was written in only three days. Dedicated to the victims of Fascism and war, it’s autobiographical, with quotes from earlier works, and his musical signature as the theme, D-Eb-C-B.
The Castlemaine Chamber Players are Sasha Bronstein and Heather Cummins, violin, Frances Gall, viola and Elisabeth Anderson, cello. The majority live in Castlemaine, where they have given several concerts, and now look forward to playing in Clunes as well as Castlemaine this year.
The group was formed in 2014 and performs a wide range of music for string quartet and other string ensembles. Previous concerts with guest performers featured Mozart’s quintets and the two string sextets by Brahms. They also like performing contemporary Australian compositions, and have commissioned music by Castlemaine composer Wendy Rowlands.
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