Performance on 3 - 20/11/2008

Martin Handley presents the celebrated New York-based Emerson Quartet returning to London's Wigmore Hall for a concert featuring works by two masters of string quartet writing. Including Schubert's C minor Quartettsatz, written in 1820 as the proposed first movement of a string quartet he never completed. It is followed by Shostakovich's penultimate quartet, dedicated to the cellist of the quartet which premiered the work. The cello plays a prominent role throughout the piece, from the dancing solo at the opening of the first movement through to the long high melancholic melody at the end of the finale. The performance concludes with Schubert's D minor Death and the Maiden quartet, one of three late masterpieces and which takes its name from a song which the composer quotes in the work. Emerson String Quartet Schubert: Quartettsatz in C minor, D703 Shostakovich: String Quartet No 14 Schubert: Quartet in D minor, D810 (Death and the Maiden) Encore: Schubert: Andante for String Quartet Followed by a part of a recital from Wigmore Hall by one of this year's BBC Young Musician of the Year Concerto Finalists: Chopin: 4 Ballades Erdem Misirliogliu (piano) Scriabin: Etude in C sharp minor op.2 no.1 (encore) Erdem Misirliogliu (piano)