A programme of playful, impressionistic and sensual music for string quartet by Tom Coult and Claude Debussy

Jonathan Morton (violin) Clio Gould (violin) Oliver Wilson (viola) Clare O’Connell (cello)

Claude Debussy - Movements from Children’s Corner arranged for String Quartet

Tom Coult - String Quartet No. 2 “Gifts”

Claude Debussy - String Quartet in G minor Op. 10

“Music, by its very nature, is something that cannot be cast into a traditional and fixed form. The music I desire must be supple enough to adapt itself to the lyrical effusions of the soul and the fantasy of dreams.” Claude Debussy

Claude Debussy is often linked with the Impressionist painters. Artistically, however, his soul is closer to the Symbolist poets who experimented with free verse and glorified the tenuous, the subtle, and the enchantment of the senses. His music luxuriates in languid rhythms, exotic scales, and freely moving chords unbound by rules.  A marriage of reason and sensuality, his unorthodox approach has given birth to exquisitely wrought music of fragile beauty.

Join us as we explore his Quartet -  an audaciously ultra-modern piece with startlingly beautiful effects,  alongside new arrangements of movements from his work for piano Children’s Corner.

Alongside we present the UK premiere of Tom Coult’s String Quartet No.2, inspired by Friedrich Fröbel’s ‘Gifts’ -  sets of wooden educational toys for young children, to each of which he gave evocative names, some of which provide the titles and stimulus for each movement. Described as playful and seductive, Tom's music provides more than a match for Debussy’s brilliance.