Zemlinsky – Brodsky Quartet

Last night, after listening for a solid week to their new powerful ‘complete string quartet’ Zemlinsky CD, I attended a concert by the great Brodsky Quartet at a full Mercury Theatre, Colchester, as they vivaciously stood around the cellist, in front of effectively severe acoustic panels…. & Zemlinsky, through his transcendent fourth quartet, came alive and hovered above their heads. Berg eat your heart out.
More from me later after this Wow! effect has worn off.

They also memorably performed with internal commands in its last movement, the Death and the Maiden quartet by Schubert. I do, however, prefer his D804 and D887 quartets.

And an early op 18 Beethoven. Vivacious in a different way.

Haunting Julia – Alan Ayckbourn

I saw a matinee production of HAUNTING JULIA, a ghost story play at the Mercury Theatre, Colchester, this afternoon. A play by Alan Ayckbourn. Marvellous.
Anyone else know this play? The scary sound effects were enhanced by building work at the theatre. Seriously.
It appealed to me, too, as it was effectively a Horror story with a classical music theme – of which I was unaware when producing THE FIRST BOOK OF CLASSICAL HORROR STORIES! it even mentioned Stockhausen.

Scary and humorous – sometimes simultaneously.

Thought-provoking, too.

The three actors were great – Duncan Preston, Joe McFadden and Richard O’Callaghan – and must have spent a long time learning endless lines!