THE second concert in The Endellion String Quartet’s residency takes place on Tuesday, May 15 at The Venue, Leeds College of Music. The musicians perform works by Haydn, Barber and Brahms for a musical journey from a 138 year time span.

Haydn’s Sunrise Quartet opens the concert in the eighteenth century with a warm rising theme over sustained chords, alluding to a sunrise. The Sunrise Quartet is the fourth quartet from the Op 76 collection, a group of six quartets that is Haydn’s last set of complete string quartets. They are the most ambitious of his compositions, deviating more than their predecessors from standard sonata form. Each of the six in the collection emphasises thematic continuity through seamless and continual exchanging of motifs between the members of the ensemble.

Barber’s String Quartet from 1935/36 is an early American work which is both attractive and highly expressive. The middle movement of the piece is the deservedly famous Barber Adagio better known in more recent years for its orchestration into an arrangement for string orchestra. In its original form in this quartet, it is more personal and intimate. A rare opportunity to experience the original form of such well-known music.

Brahms destroyed many of his nineteenth century string quartet compositions before he was satisfied enough to publish them, leaving what he must have considered to be his best efforts for publication. The first of the three in circulation, Quartet No 1, is remarkable for its organic unity and harmonic sophistication, structurally and thematically taking note from Schubert’s Quartettsatz, a piece that is performed next month in The Endellion String Quartet’s residency.

The Endellion String Quartet has appeared at nearly all of the major British series and festivals and is regularly broadcast on BBC radio and television. In 1996 the quartet was winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Best Chamber Ensemble. Its various recordings have been named Chamber Music Recording of the Year by both the Daily Telegraph and The Guardian, Radio 3’s Critics’ Choice and Editor’s Choice at the Gramophone Awards. The members of the quartet are violinists Andrew Watkinson and Ralph de Souza, violist Garfield Jackson and cellist David Waterman.

Tickets for The Endellion String Quartet are £21 & £19 and are available from the City Centre Box Office on 0113 376 0318 or online at www.leedsconcertseason.co.uk.