Determined to bring the visceral experience of string quartet performance to audiences at close quarters, the Gildas  Quartet created their immersive project Surround Sound Sessions. Each performance in this series brings a single great quartet work to listeners, inviting them to sit literally in ‘surround sound’ and experience the drama from the centre of the ensemble. In this performance the quartet will explore Britten’s valedictory and deeply moving third quartet, his last instrumental work. You will get to know the piece as the quartet deconstruct and demonstrate aspects of the music. A complete memorised performance of the Britten ends the concert, with the audience surrounding the quartet.

‘We wanted to find a way to open up the quartet to audiences without the distance of a concert platform. In this intimate performance the listener is seated in the middle, with the quartet spaced out so that the audience is immersed from all sides. This way dialogue and textures are opened up like never before, and you experience the full drama of the music unfolding around you in live ‘surround sound’.

The performance will last approximately 1 hour, without an interval, and there are two performances - starting at 5pm and 7pm.

Gildas Quartet Britten No. 3 in Surround Sound • Classical • Kings Place

Full programme to be announced, but will include Britten’s 3rd String Quartet.

Jessie Montgomery Break Away Suite
Haydn String Quartet Op.76 no.1 in G major

Purcell Four Part Fantasias
Britten String Quartet no.3

The celebrated author Alexander McCall Smith asks, ‘how do memories make us who we are?’ The answer comes in music – by Harry Whalley – and poetry and scientific exploration informed by neurologist Professor Adam Zeman. Joined by the acclaimed Gildas String Quartet and Soprano Sarah Dacey each movement explores a different capacity of memory. How memories are formed before birth from a mother’s song, how autobiographical memories are encoded in our minds and memories declines in old age.

After an interval, this is followed with a discussion with the authors led and chaired by Professor Catherine Loveday, digging deeper into the special relationship that music has with memory and our sense of self.

On Memory • Classical • Kings Place

With support from the University for the Creative Arts.

Determined to bring the visceral experience of string quartet performance to audiences at close quarters, the Gildas Quartet created their immersive project ‘Surround Sound Sessions’. Each performance in this series brings a single great quartet work to listeners, inviting them to sit literally in ‘surround sound’ and experience the drama from the centre of the ensemble. In May 2020, the Gildas Quartet received an award from the Help Musicians UK Do It Differently Fund, which supported the continuation of their Surround Sound Sessions remotely, under the dramatically different circumstances brought about by the pandemic. The project grew further with the commission of new works specially designed to be recorded in isolation, which exploit binaural panning techniques to allow the four instrumental lines to surround (and move around) the listener.

Equally passionate about new music and works from the quartet canon, the Gildas Quartet has collaborated with many eminent British composers. The quartet has been privileged to work with Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Colin Matthews and Michael Finnissy, and commissioned Philip Cashian’s String Quartet No. 2, which was given its premiere by the quartet at the St Magnus Festival in Orkney. The quartet’s recording of two works by Cheryl Frances-Hoad has been released to critical acclaim on the Champs Hill label.

You will hear the music of Purcell that inspired Britten followed by an exploration of his 2nd Quartet, with the quartet deconstructing and demonstrating aspects of the music. A complete memorised performance of the Britten ends the concert, with the audience surrounding the quartet.

The performance will last approximately 1hr.

For tickets and more information, head to: https://www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on/classical/gildas-quartet-britten-in-surround-sound/

Determined to bring the visceral experience of string quartet performance to audiences at close quarters, the Gildas Quartet created their immersive project ‘Surround Sound Sessions’. Each performance in this series brings a single great quartet work to listeners, inviting them to sit literally in ‘surround sound’ and experience the drama from the centre of the ensemble. In May 2020, the Gildas Quartet received an award from the Help Musicians UK Do It Differently Fund, which supported the continuation of their Surround Sound Sessions remotely, under the dramatically different circumstances brought about by the pandemic. The project grew further with the commission of new works specially designed to be recorded in isolation, which exploit binaural panning techniques to allow the four instrumental lines to surround (and move around) the listener.

Equally passionate about new music and works from the quartet canon, the Gildas Quartet has collaborated with many eminent British composers. The quartet has been privileged to work with Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Colin Matthews and Michael Finnissy, and commissioned Philip Cashian’s String Quartet No. 2, which was given its premiere by the quartet at the St Magnus Festival in Orkney. The quartet’s recording of two works by Cheryl Frances-Hoad has been released to critical acclaim on the Champs Hill label.

You will hear the music of Purcell that inspired Britten followed by an exploration of his 2nd Quartet, with the quartet deconstructing and demonstrating aspects of the music. A complete memorised performance of the Britten ends the concert, with the audience surrounding the quartet.

The performance will last approximately 1hr.

For tickets and more information, head to: https://www.turnersims.co.uk/events/gildas-quartet-britten-in-surround-sound/

SCHUBERT Quartettsatz
BRAHMS Clarinet Quintet
HOWELLS Rhapsodic Quintet
MOZART Clarinet Quintet

Gildas Quartet are delighted to be joining Emma Johnson for this programme of clarinet quintets at the Sevenoaks Music Club.

BARTÓK Streichquartett Nr. 6 D-Dur Sz 114
WEBER Klarinettenquintett B-Dur op. 34
BRAHMS Streichsextett Nr. 1 B-Dur op. 18

Gildas Quartet perform Weber’s Clarinet Quintet with clarinettist Boglárka Pecze.

CASHIAN Streichquartett Nr. 2
SCHUBERT Streichquartett Nr. 14 d-Moll op. posth. D 810 »Der Tod und das Mädchen«

Gildas Quartet perform Schubert’s Death and the Maiden Quartet alongside Philip Cashian’s 2nd string quartet which was written for them.

KORNGOLD Streichsextett D-Dur op. 10
BEETHOVEN Streichquartett Nr. 14 cis-Moll op. 131

Gildas Quartet join forces with members of the Eliot Quartett to play Korngold’s kaleidoscopic string sextet.

BIRTWISTLE Tree of Strings für Streichquartett
MOZART Streichquartett F-Dur KV 590 »Preußisches«

Gildas Quartet perform Birtwistle’s ‘Tree of Strings’ for String Quartet in a programme presented alongside the Elliot Quartett.

BRITTEN Streichquartett Nr. 2 C-Dur op. 36
PURCELL Chaconne g-Moll für Streichquartett
PURCELL Fantasias für Streichquartett

Gildas Quartet perform Britten’s 2nd String Quartet in Surround Sound formation.

Programme:

SZYMANOWSKI Streichquartett Nr. 2 op. 56
MONTGOMERY Break Away für Streichquartett
HENSEL Streichquartett Es-Dur

The Gildas quartet play Jessie Montgomery’s ‘Break Away’ Suite for String Quartet in a programme presented alongside the Eliot Quartett and Simply Quartet.

Jessie Montgomery Break Away

Birtwistle Tree of Strings

Schubert Death and the Maiden

We are delighted to be playing at Lea Barn’s concert series in Cookham, and will be presenting works which we will be taking to the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommen.

Jessie Montgomery Break Away

Philip Cashian String Quartet No.2

Schubert Death and the Maiden

We are delighted to be returning to Crediton to perform at St Boniface Concert Society after performing there in 2018. Our programme includes Philip Cashian’s 2nd string quartet which was commissioned for the Gildas Quartet to be performed alongside Death and the Maiden.

Purcell  Fantasias & Chaconne 
Britten  String Quartet No.2  
Schubert  Quartet in D minor D810 ‘Death and the Maiden’ 

Rave reviews follow the Gildas Quartet from port to port and it is no wonder given the imagination and spirit which describes their lauded performances. The term ‘masterpiece’ is often thrown around to excess, but words rarely match up to Schubert’s exquisite ‘Death and the Maiden’.   

Britten  String Quartet No.2 (deconstructed) 

Come and be at the centre of things in this intimate session! The Gildas Quartet think they have the best seats in the house and they’d like you to get as close as possible, diving in to Britten’s brilliant String Quartet No.2, which they perform from memory. Choose your vantage point - the players spread out so you can explore the sound sitting right in the middle in full ‘Surround Sound’. The quartet will make sure you are intimately acquainted with the music before you hear the whole work, and by the end you will feel almost as if you have played it yourself!