Wihan Quartet with James Boyd, viola - 7.30pm, Saturday 2nd October 2010

We open our 2010-2011 season with a concert of three of the finest string quintets ever written.

Although there are string quintets which augment the standard string quartet with a cello, or even a double base, the most common arrangement involves a second viola, and for this concert the brilliant young violist James Boyd will be joining the outstanding Czech group, the Wihan Quartet.

Founded in 1985, the Wihan Quartet are heirs to the great Czech musical tradition. Their outstanding reputation for the interpretation of their native Czech heritage and of the many classical, romantic and modern masterpieces of the string quartet repertoire is widely acknowledged.

James Boyd has played with many chamber groups, including the Florestan Trio and Endellion and Wihan Quartets, and in 2001 he founded the London Haydn Quartet.

The concert will open with the third of Mozart's wonderful set of six string quintets, and end with the best-known of them, the haunting G minor Quintet. In between, the Wihan Quartet and James Boyd will play Dvorak's glorious Op 97 Quintet, a sunny work from the composer's years in America.

• Mozart: String Quintet 3 in C, K 515
• Dvorak: String Quintet in E flat, Op 97
• Mozart: String Quintet 4 in G min, K 516
  

Top of page | Print this page