Update 16th November 2024

Good morning everyone I imagine that you will all, like me, be still quite dazed by the intensity and depth of the programme last week and so brilliantly played by the Nous quartet. The Schostakovitch especially was breathtaking and I look forward to the upcoming recordings the Nous are working on of the complete Schostakovitch quartets. The Schubert Death and the Maiden was also beautifully played and highly charged so I felt a short shining jewel would have been a more appropriate soothing encore than the Boccherini first movement although it was also beautifully performed. Next month we are going to have another wonderful programme played by the London Chamber Ensemble Quartet. How spoilt are we? This time we will have the delicious Ravel, Borodin’s quartet No 2 and the amazing Beethoven op131. (More breathtaking intensity) This quartet is like no other Beethoven in that it starts with a slow movement and then continues through another six which grow out of each other with no pauses as if Beethoven was allowing his imagination to wander unrestricted through a myriad of ideas. The first movement absorbs us into his probing thoughts setting us up for the wonders to come. Already we are at the last concert this year and I am so looking forward to seeing you and sharing this lovely programme with you all in the beautiful attentive silence you give to our artists. See you on Wednesday 11th December in the Old Kirk
Mairi Rolland
Chairman