Mozart
String Quartet in D minor, K173
Arriaga
String Quartet No 2 in A major
Mendelssohn
Theme and Variations Op 81 No 1, Capriccio Op 81 No 3
Mozart
String Quartet in G major, K387 ‘Spring’
Another of Mozart’s astonishingly accomplished teenage quartets starts this concert and it ends with one he wrote nine years later. It was one of six he dedicated to Haydn, who told Mozart’s father: “Before God and as an honest man, I tell you that your son is the greatest composer known to me either in person or by name.” Arriaga’s youthful genius was such that he was known as the “Spanish Mozart” and though he was barely 20 at his death in 1826, his three quartets show incredible maturity, proof of how sad a loss he was to music.
"This quietly-spoken, self-questioning Scottish pianist has risen to the top tier of pianists worldwide, and this concert was a reminder of the way he combines relentless perfectionism with surprising wildness."
The Telegraph, November 2019