Spero Quartet - Spring String Series 2022

In association with the National String Quartet Foundation
 
The Spero Quartet is an exciting new quartet formed in 2020, bringing together three of Ireland’s finest musicians with Canadian violinist Brigid Leman. They present Garth Knox’s inventive and entertaining ‘Satellites’ alongside two of the lesser known greats from the repertoire. Of all Mozart’s quartets, K.499 manages to combine light, divertimento-like material with an extraordinary harmonic and contrapuntal depth. Shostakovich’s ninth quartet, from 1964, lives somewhat in the shadow of the eighth quartet, but is every bit its equal, memorable especially perhaps for its anguished pizzicato cadenzas and the long, unbearably sustained and intense build-ups in the last movement.
 
SPERO QUARTET
Jennifer Murphy, violin
Brigid Leman, violin
David Kenny, viola
Yseult Cooper-Stockdale, cello