Wednesday Concert: Ensemble Arcadiana

Thomas Bowes:violin
Oscar Perks:violin
Elliott Perks:viola
Leo Melvin:cello

Beethoven:String Quartet in D major, Op.18, No.3
Eleanor Alberga:Quartet No.3
Mendelssohn:String Quartet in E♭ major, Op.44, No.3

Ensemble Arcadianais the offshoot of the Festival Arcadia that was a staple of artistic life in and around Ludlow until 2022. Led by violinist Thomas Bowes the group present and record a wide range of repertoire. Central to their mission is featuring the music of co-artistic director Eleanor Alberga. Drawing on the finest UK based musicians their performances and recordings are noted for their energy and communicativeness.

With all three works in the concert sharing a number 3 in their naming, this concert is a celebration of that most eloquent of chamber music formats, the string quartet.

Beethoven's delightful Op.18 No.3 belies its numbering as actually it was the first work in the medium the great master wrote. He would write another 14 quartets over the next 25 years and grow the string quartet to previously unimagined proportions. Here he is at the beginning of that momentous journey, with a quartet already building on the achievements of Haydn and Mozart.

Mendelssohn’s Op.44 No.3 is the last in this set of mature quartets — his return to the medium in adulthood after success with two earlier attempts. It is a beautifully crafted work which recaptures of the overflowing youthful joy encapsulated in his Octet of some 20 years earlier.

The central work in the programme is Eleanor Alberga's third quartet of 2000. The composer will be present to introduce and signpost a performance of a work recently described by a an American critic as a ‘21st century classic’.