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About
Purcell was one of Britten's heroes and nowhere is this more evident than in the Second String Quartet (written for the Purcell 350th anniversary celebrations). Music of translucent, hypnotic beauty, it culminates in an expansively flowing finale following the course of a simple repeating bass pattern so often employed by the English baroque master.
Hearing Purcell's exquisite, intricate four-part Fantasias (originally written for viols) alongside it is illuminating – three centuries apart, they share an elegant simplicity and heartfelt directness, seeming to spring from the same musical source. All subsequent writers of string quartets owe a debt to Haydn, who elevated the format from salon music trinkets with a prodigious output that combined consummate craftsmanship with expressive depth. The pan-European Adelphi Quartet won second prize and Esterházy Foundation Prize at the prestigious Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition
