Cambridge String Quartet
The Cambridge String Quartet are a new string quartet, local to Cambridge, who specialise in the performance of Beethoven.
Follow this page for news about our events, research and other information about Beethoven.
11/06/2022
Nearly ready for our concert in half an hour 😎ONE MORE TICKET LEFT!
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/cambridgestringquartet/699132
19/02/2022
Another fabulous Yellow House Labs concert! We played the whole of Maddalena Laura Sirmen’s opus of six trios, experienced how the music became more dramatic and expressive as the opus unfolded throughout the evening, SIGHTREAD the final trio in public and continued some brilliant conversations with the audience in the pub afterwards 🤩 A very special evening, thank you to all who came 💛💙🧡
19/02/2022
Our salon is taking shape! Last two tickets available for our Trio concert this evening 🎻
Book here: https://cambridgestringquartet.co.uk/concerts/
Paula will be flying solo for this month’s talk with the CSQ friends. Both Rachel and Josh look forward to joining in the coming months.
This talk will take place this Wednesday at 19:30 and will be on the last movement of Beethoven's Op 127.
To join in on these online seminars you can become a friend of the quartet here:
https://cambridgestringquartet.co.uk/friends/
Friends
The time has come!
The month has rolled around and the Friends of the Cambridge String Quartet are in for a treat for this months Beethoven Quartet Society Online Stream.
Paula and Rachel will be exploring the third movement of Beethoven's Op. 127. What a piece!
To become a friend of the quartet visit the link below:
https://cambridgestringquartet.co.uk/friends/
cambridgestringquartet.co.uk We’re delighted to announce our Beethoven Quartet Society (BQS) friends scheme! It’s been lovely to meet and interact with so many of you during our weekly online streams, and we can& #8…
What was Beethoven's favourite fruit?
Ba-na-na-naa!!
Now that we've got your attention - Paula and Josh will be holding another webinar for the CSQ Friends on the 1st July at 19:30 on the 2nd movement of Op. 127.
Sound a-peeling...?!
Details to become a friend can be found here:
https://cambridgestringquartet.co.uk/friends/
Friends
Paula and Josh look forward to being joined by the friends of the CSQ tonight at 19:30 for another stream on Beethoven’s late string quartets.
We would love to welcome some new faces to our friends community. More information on how to become a Friend of the CSQ can be found here:
https://cambridgestringquartet.co.uk/friends/
cambridgestringquartet.co.uk We’re delighted to announce our Beethoven Quartet Society (BQS) friends scheme! It’s been lovely to meet and interact with so many of you during our weekly online streams, and we can& #8…
I Want (more) Beethoven!
…is what the Friends of the Cambridge String Quartet roared! Luckily for them Paula and Josh are holding more streams starting this Wednesday at 19:30 UK time. We will be discussing bow speed and articulation in the first movement of Opus 127.
These streams will only be available to Friends of the quartet. The good news is you can become a friend for as little as £5/month!
Full information about our friends scheme is available at https://cambridgestringquartet.co.uk/friends/ and you can see our schedule of online events at https://cambridgestringquartet.co.uk/concerts/.
Don’t let Beethoven down. Be kind. Be a Friend!
We're super excited to announce the next set of online streams! Join us on the first Wednesdays of June, July and August as we continue our exploration of late Beethoven! The streams are now available to our Friends only, but you can become a Friend for as little as £5/month! https://cambridgestringquartet.co.uk/friends/
First up:
Wednesday June 3 2020
7:30pm – 8:30pm UK time
Paula Muldoon - Fiddlers Code & Joshua Lynch
Bow Speed and Articulations in Beethoven Op. 127, mvt 1
Stephen Fry on his depression, and how Beethoven’s music ‘brought colour back’
Stephen Fry has recently spoken out about how listening to Beethoven's music helped him during dark moments 🌤
https://cambridgestringquartet.co.uk/friends/
We hope that listening to our streams has provided some small measure of comfort during strange and difficult times for everyone 👫 If you're in need of the healing power of music, we highly recommend you listen to our fourth session on the 'Heiligerdankgesang', Beethoven's own testament to ill health and healing, which you can check out on our YouTube channel. Keep well and safe everyone! 🙏
https://www.classicfm.com/composers/beethoven/stephen-fry-music-brought-colour-life-depression/
classicfm.com Beethoven’s music saved me during a dark time, says comedian and writer Stephen Fry.
Do you fancy being like one of these chaps? 😎We've named the different levels of our Friends scheme after Beethoven's most prominent Viennese patrons!
https://cambridgestringquartet.co.uk/friends/
Without their financial support, which took the form of a generous annual pension, Beethoven would not have had the freedom to experiment and produce the wonderful masterpieces that he did. Please consider supporting us, which will help us to support YOU in your own musical explorations in turn! 🎶
Friends
Thank you so much to all of our listeners for supporting us over the past few weeks, we've really enjoyed meeting you all 👏 We'd love to continue sharing our thoughts and ideas with you, so please do consider joining our brand new Friends scheme to receive more exclusive content! Benefits are lockdown friendly for the moment, and will be updated as soon as we are able to play live again 🎶 All support is very gratefully received 🌷
https://cambridgestringquartet.co.uk/friends/
cambridgestringquartet.co.uk We’re delighted to announce our Beethoven Quartet Society (BQS) friends scheme! It’s been lovely to meet and interact with so many of you during our weekly online streams, and we can& #8…
Cambridge String Quartet
Join us live on YouTube for our 8th and final quartet stream!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrOoFt-SWGZ9q3IrJHv_j2A
Beethoven named the last movement of his last quartet 'the difficult decision'. What did he mean?! 🤯 To find out, join us at 7.30pm tonight for the final instalment of our Beethoven Quartet Society series! As well as exploring the last two movements of Op. 135 you will also get to MEET THE WHOLE QUARTET! 🙋♀️🙋♀️🙋♂️🙋♂️Definitely NOT a difficult decision!
🎶 'MUSS ES SEIN? ES MUSS SEIN!' 🎶 Very sadly we have reached the LAST week of our Beethoven Quartet Society series 😢 Fittingly, we will be tackling the LAST complete work that Beethoven ever wrote, his quirky String Quartet in F major, Op. 135. Tune in for the LAST time at 7.30pm tomorrow to find out more about the mysterious quotation at the beginning of the last movement and a SURPRISE that will be revealed shortly....🤩🥳
Cambridge String Quartet
🧐While ad libbing after a small technical hitch, Rachel inadvertently exaggerated the number of sketches that Beethoven left for this quartet - there are around 650 surviving pages and not 800!! The dangers of speaking off the top of your head on a live broadcast 🙈😂 If you missed us, don't forget that you can catch up on all of our Beethoven Quartet Society sessions on our youtube channel!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrOoFt-SWGZ9q3IrJHv_j2A?view_as=subscriber
The Beethoven Quartet Society
Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: The Beethoven Quartet Society. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.
Join us on Zoom, or Youtube in ten minuts! https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ZlCpHa-8QWyqjRZbDzGtVg
us02web.zoom.us Today we'll be listening to the first movement of Beethoven's String Quartet in B flat major, Op. 130. Like many of the other late string quartets, Beethoven's use of form in this movement is completely radical and defies formal conventions of the time. We'll point out different themes to listen out...
We often think of Beethoven composing music in an abstract way, without any care for the 'wretched fiddles' of his players! But just how DID the physicalities of instrumental playing - the risk of snapped strings, issues of tuning, and the sheer exhaustion of playing seven movements without stopping - affect Beethoven's compositional decisions in Op. 131? Join Joshua Lynch and Rachel Hodgson at 7.30pm tonight to find out! 🎧🎻🎼
This week we'll be letting the music do most of the talking and listening to the WHOLE of Beethoven's String Quartet in C # minor, Op. 131. There'll still be time for questions and we'll even ponder why Beethoven left the end of the autograph score without a concluding double barline.... Have you got any ideas? 🧐 Join Joshua Lynch and Rachel Hodgson for more Beethoven fun at 7.30pm on Wednesday!
Beethoven--'Lob auf den Dicken';'Esel aller Esel'--Bavarian Opera Chorus
Is it better to be teased about your weight if it happens in musical form?! Perhaps only if it's composed by one of the greatest composers of all time! Check out this comic chorus written by Ludwig himself, delightfully named 'In Praise of the Fat One', which immortalises his (affectionately) jokey relationship with Schuppanzigh 😂🙈
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVBRV-0kUsM
Beethoven composed these in 1801. Pointedly, the meanings are "In Praise of a Fat Man", and "Ass to End All Asses". (When "political correctness"--um--wasn't...
Meet Ignaz Schuppanzigh, the leader of the quartet that premièred all of Beethoven's late quartets - including the notorious fiasco of Op. 127, during which he snapped a string! Schuppanzigh taught Beethoven the violin when he first arrived in Vienna, and remained a close friend of the composer until the end of his life. Perhaps too close...Beethoven frequently joked about Schuppanzigh's, ahem, corpulence, and even gave him the nickname 'Milord Falstaff' in reference to his weight!! Would you ever play for a composer who fat shamed you?!
Cambridge String Quartet
Join us at 7:30pm UK time today to explore Opus 127!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrOoFt-SWGZ9q3IrJHv_j2A
Les Passions de l'Ame, Orchester für Alte Musik Bern
Even residents in Bern are checking in for our Online Beethoven Quartet Society sessions! Thanks to the amazing Les Passions de l'Ame, Orchester für Alte Musik Bern for spreading the word. Check out and like their page for great content, videos and info about their award-winning recordings 🏆🎻🎧 We're sad that the coronavirus pandemic has prevented them from coming to Cambridge to play their 'Salon Beethoven' programme next week, but who knows, perhaps they'll visit us next year... 🤞
Unsere Geigerin Rachel Stroud bespricht zusammen mit ihren Mitmusiker*innen der Beethoven Quartet Society wöchentlich einen Satz eines der späten Streichquartette von Ludwig van Beethoven. Sie hat zu diesem Thema promoviert und macht auch Laien die Besonderheiten dieser Musik verständlich: eine Auseinandersetzung mit Beethoven in dessen Jubiläumsjahr.
Beethoven Quartett Society
jeden Mittwochabend, 20:30 Uhr (CH-Zeit)
Ihr könnt die Sessions live via Zoom verfolgen oder im Nachhinein auf Youtube anschauen.
This Wednesday we'll be listening to the first two movements of Beethoven's String Quartet in E flat major, Op. 127, at the request of Jonathan Holburn! The première of this quartet was such a fiasco that it caused a 'quartet off' between the local quartets of Vienna to decide who would have the privilege of giving the next performance! Anyone want to take us on for this position in Cambridge once lockdown is lifted?! 😅
Our amazing first violinist Paula Muldoon getting ready for our weekly broadcasts 🎻 Join us at 7.30pm on Wednesday evenings to hear her make the most fiendish passages in the late quartets look easy 😎
Cambridge String Quartet
Join us at 7:30pm UK time on Zoom or our YouTube channel!
Zoom: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ZlCpHa-8QWyqjRZbDzGtVg
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrOoFt-SWGZ9q3IrJHv_j2A
CSQ second violinist Rachel Hodgson has been looking at a facsimile of Beethoven's autograph score of Op. 132 in preparation for tonight's session (any excuse!) 🤓💁♀️ Seeing Beethoven's handwriting really brings us closer to the real man who composed this amazing music. Join Rachel and Paula Muldoon at 7.30pm tonight to explore the final movements of Op. 132!
Cambridge String Quartet's Live Stream Feedback
One of our Quartet Society listeners has asked us to let you know which movements we'll be looking at next! For our fifth session we'll be listening to the last movements of Op. 132 - a short and silly March, followed by a passionate, waltz-like dance 💃 Comment below, email us ([email protected]) or fill in our feedback form if you'd like us to do something differently - we always 🧡 to hear from our listeners!
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Ey6zvL7iK7NX5MpQ4JyzjXWYTp-YQB6eFsX211_jW-Q/edit
docs.google.com This survey should only take 90 seconds and your feedback will help us put on more community events!
Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: The Beethoven Quartet Society. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.
Starting at 7:30pm UK time -
Zoom link https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ZlCpHa-8QWyqjRZbDzGtVg
YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrOoFt-SWGZ9q3IrJHv_j2A
zoom.us Today we'll be listening to the first movement of Beethoven's String Quartet in B flat major, Op. 130. Like many of the other late string quartets, Beethoven's use of form in this movement is completely radical and defies formal conventions of the time. We'll point out different themes to listen out...