A warm reception in Leamington Spa.

We had a very nice time in Leamington Spa, performing the Beethoven/Zemlinsky programme to rapt attention and enthusiastic applause. Such a great audience - seemed to take in every nuance and emotion and would have been open to any amount of challenging repertoire.
The dressing room was a first for me - in the Pump Rooms (beautiful building by the way) the ladies' changing room is shared with the caterers, so I had an ice-cream freezer as my companion. Warming up literally as the heat pumped out by the air exchange from the motor ensured true spa treatment temperatures! However, the charming caterers provided a lovely tea with excellent home-made cakes. Mmmm…

Trees, Walls and Cities to be set in stone!

Spent the weekend in Oxford at the Jacqueline du Pre concert hall performing and then recording the song cycle we commissioned in 2013 from almost 20 collaborators - composers and poets - for the Derry-Londonderry City of Culture and the City of London Festival. Ian Richie, who was one of the brains behind the whole concept and materialisation of the work, came to hear the performance so there was a real spirit of reunion. Lore Lixenburg is such a hoot and a fantastic artist, to sing in so many languages and be able to sound like a medieval chanter one minute and a mid-European peasant the next! On returning home I was delighted to receive this email from a family who attended the concert:

Dear Brodsky Quartet

Thank you for the amazing concert you gave in Oxford last Friday. I keep thinking about it. We were there with our two children. My daughter summed it up when said that you "played better than I thought it was possible to play!"

Warm regards,

Jane

This kind of feedback makes our work more even meaningful and satisfying.

On the banks of the beautiful Danube

Just returned from beautiful Budapest and its glorious Liszt Academy Solti Hall. We got a great response to a challenging programme - including Beethoven 131 and Zemlinsky 2 - from an audience which seemed well able to handle the challenge. Their rhythmic hand clapping which seems to go through a series of complicated pattern changes, like a Kodaly Method training exercise, is wonderful to be on the receiving end of! What an amazingly vibrant cultural tradition this city holds. Sight-seeing the morning after the concert, up the funicular to the incredible views from the castle and a warming coffee and apple tart in the ramparts cafe to escape the icy wind, I was inspired by the sense of history at this crossroad of central Europe… And yet, speaking to locals, I got a real sense of loss that entry into the new Europe has somehow taken a little of the identity and heart out of this place, and certainly many of its young people seeking jobs elsewhere, leaving it somehow feeling empty and tired. Hopefully as the dust settles it will recover and rediscover its national identity and pride.

Leiden Shostakovich weekend

We’re still glowing from the fantastic weekend in Leiden - the stunning new chamber hall of the Almarktzaal - for the complete Shostakovich cycle. The audience was great, so enthusiastic and engaged throughout. Susanne Lammers is the perfect host: full of great energy and love for the music as well as her knowing her audience and trusting them with imaginative programming and innovative themes. Great plans for the future... 

This has really added to our sense of growing excitement in anticipation of the cycle this time next year at the Musiekgebouw, Amsterdam, which will be recorded live for release through Chandos the soon afterwards. It’s wonderful to have another chance to put these giants of the repertoire into our catalogue, 25 years after we first recorded them.