Concerts at St Christopher's Hospice

[Robin Orton]

I don't know whether everyone who might be interested knows that St Christopher's are putting on a series of monthly concerts - 'The Dame Cicely Saunders Concert Series'. I went to the second of the series this evening - the Alba Quartet, young musicians from Scotland - and really enjoyed it, particularly the first half (an early but very accomplished Haydn quartet, op. 20 no.4, and some witty and wonderful Britten from his student years, Three Divertiment for string quartet.) The second half was the more well-known Schubert 'Death and the Maiden' quartet. I wasn't so sure about this - anyone who was there have any views? The intonation and balance seemed slightly dodgy, I thought, and the tone sounded a bit too raw and strained even for this gloomy and dramatic music. Perhaps the rather unresonant acoustic didn't help?

It's good to have this new music venue. Future concerts are listed on the St Christopher's website homepage - http://www.stchristophers.org.uk/page.cfm/ID=1

[Tim Lund]

Robin:

I'd agree with that - I very much enjoyed the Haydn, which I'd not heard before, but wasn't sure why the Schubert wasn't quite as good - you may well be right.

Their encore piece was fun - some eighteenth century Scot's lament for his second wife. I wonder if it was originally for a string quartet - it felt more like bag pipe music, especially the sudden switch to a fast reel rhythm at the end, which suggested that, after all, her death was not such a bad thing

[simon]

Good to hear about this, thanks Robin, and Sydenham Community Radio will publicise forthcoming concerts and hopefully get some of those involved on air.