L van Beethoven String Quartet No. 4 in C minor, Op.18, No. 4
Sally Beamish String Quartet No. 2 ‘Opus California’
The BIF Chamber Ensemble is an initiative to provide mentoring, engagement and performance opportunities to talented chamber ensembles in the UK.
This concert sees the return of the Corran Quartet, the BIF Chamber Ensemble for 2021 and 2022, whose appearances over the year have made a strong impression on audiences. Formed in 2019 they have studied with James Boyd and Catherine Mason and have performed live on BBC Radio 3’s ‘In Tune’, and at the Big BIF Weekend in October 2021.
Although it is Beethoven’s late quartets that are often considered some of his most important works in the genre, his six early quartets, Op. 18 already show him as the natural successor to Mozart and Haydn and a master of the form.
In 1999 Sally Beamish was commissioned by the Brodsky Quartet to write a partner piece to Beethoven’s Op. 18. The C minor Quartet was the first string quartet that she had ever played. In her ‘Opus California’, inspired by a recent trip to the States, she takes fragments of the Beethoven for each movement and develops them, using aspects of jazz and contemporary American style.