Carducci Quartet

Event details

Matthew Denton  violin
Michelle Fleming  violin
Eoin Schmidt-Martin  viola
Emma Denton  cello
Luke Thallon, Abigail Weinstock  actors

Fanny Mendelssohn   String Quartet in E-flat
Fanny Mendelssohn, arr. Emma Denton   Juni, Oktober and Postlude from Das Jahr 
Felix Mendelssohn   Movements from String Quartets nos. 1, 2 and 6

Felix and Fanny

Felix and Fanny explores the intense connection between the Mendelssohn siblings through their music, intertwined with spoken word adapted from Myla Lichtman-Fields’s play of the same name. Struggling with conflicting impulses of authorship versus social expectations, Fanny Mendelssohn spent the majority of her lifetime restricted to private performances and watching her brother take credit for the music she had written. In this performance, the Carducci Quartet places Fanny’s music centre stage. Adapted into a two-person play by Myla Lichtman-Fields, letters between the siblings interweave movements from Fanny’s highly expressive String Quartet and a selection of pieces from her ground-breaking Das Jahr.

‘Alongside music by Felix, Fanny’s musical diary reveals a raw emotional intensity. There’s no better ensemble to uncover Fanny’s quest for recognition than the Carducci Quartet’ (The Guardian)

‘Playing of constant variety, a masterclass in unanimity of musical purpose’ (The Strad)