Wednesday 8 March 2023 8pm

Haydn                 String Quartet in E flat major, op 33 no. 2 ‘The Joke’

Fauré                   String Quartet in E minor, op 121

Mendelssohn     String Quartet in D major, op 44 no. 3

The Consone Quartet were the first period instrument quartet to become BBC New Generation Artists in 2019. Formed at the Royal College of Music they launched their professional career in 2015, specialising in classical and early romantic repertoire. They have been enthusiastically received and won plaudits for their ‘perfect intonation, tremendous attack and impeccable historical style’ [Sir Roger Norrington].

For their first visit to Ilkley they combine their core repertoire with an unique 20th-century quartet. We begin with one of Haydn’s ‘Russian’ quartets which so impressed Mozart and finish with the last of Mendelssohn’s op 44 quartets which hark back to those earlier classical models, without abandoning his characteristic exuberance. Fauré’s late flowering string quartet—his only chamber work without a piano—explores a completely different sound world: it is more abstract but nevertheless has a beauty all its own. Hearing it on instruments with gut strings will be like stepping back 100 years!