Join the Verona Quartet at Conway Hall for an evening of Mendelssohn, Beethoven and Bacecicz.

J.S. Bach is widely considered to be one of the greatest Baroque composers, but having lived a modest life and died a pauper, he was all but lost to history until Felix Mendelssohn helped resurrect and champion this great musical hero. Although Beethoven needed no such resurrection, the majority of composers following in his footsteps feared the influence of this gargantuan figure whose writing exploded the restraints of the Classical period. Not so for the bold teenage Mendelssohn. At the tender age of sixteen, Mendelssohn’s First String Quartet in E flat (the key of Beethoven’s beloved ‘Eroica’ Symphony) can be seen as a personal letter from a number one fan to his greatest idol. With direct references to Beethoven’s quartets, the Op. 12 quartet reveals a humble but visionary composer poised not only to take on the mantle of his idols but to usher forward the next era of music making.

Mendelssohn | Quartet No.1 in E♭ Op.12
Bacewicz | Quartet No.4
Beethoven | Quartet No.10 in E♭ “Harp” Op.74

Jonathan Ong • violin
Dorothy Ro • violin
Abigail Rojansky • viola
Jonathan Dormand • cello