Dante Quartet
Zoë Beyers and Ian Watson violins
Ben Newton viola | Richard Jenkinson cello
with Benjamin Frith piano
Haydn Quartet in B flat Op 76 No 4 ‘Sunrise’
Simpson Quartet No 8
Schumann Piano Quintet in E flat Op 44
The Dante Quartet returns to Leamington after a four year gap and with a new line-up. Simpson’s Quartet No 8 dates from 1979 and shows the composer at his best in an attractive, powerful and gripping work which, dedicated to an entomologist, includes a most intriguing depiction of the mosquito.
With the concert having started with Haydn at his sunniest, the Festival will close with Schumann’s sparkling Piano Quintet, with Benjamin Frith back here after too long a time. Known as a soloist and member of the Gould Piano Trio, he was a pupil of the legendary Fanny Waterman and, among many awards, won the Gold Medal in the Arthur Rubinstein Competition in Israel in 1989.