FICINO QUARTET

FICINO QUARTET

FICINO QUARTET

Elaine Clark, violin
Lynda O’Connor, violin
Nathan Sherman, viola
Ailbhe McDonagh, cello

CASTLEBAR – Wednesday 4th December at 8pm – Linenhall Arts Centre
SKIBBEREEN – Thursday 5th December at 8pm – venue tbc – presented by Barrahane Music
KENMARE – Friday 6th December at 6pm – Carnegie Arts Centre
CORK – Saturday 7th December at 1pm – Triskel Arts Centre  *
DUBLIN – Sunday 8th December at 3pm – National Concert Hall *

* Programme for Cork and Dublin differs

PROGRAMME

Haydn – String Quartet in B flat major Op.76 No.4 Sunrise [1797]
Amanda Feery – From Ashes [2019]
Beethoven – String Quartet in A minor Op.132 [1825]

The Ficino Quartet comprises four of our most decorated musicians who have been playing as a quartet for many years and have featured in every NSQF season. This autumn they present one of Beethoven’s greatest masterpieces, his A minor quartet Op.132. Perhaps most famous for its moving slow movement, the Holy song of thanksgiving of a convalescent to the Deity, the quartet as a whole depicts a quite extraordinary range of emotions, from the urgency and searching of the opening, through the homely conversations of the second movement and the radiance of the slow third movement, to the glorious finale. Amanda Feery’s From Ashes was written in 2019 as a prelude to the Beethoven quartet, introducing and exploring some of its motifs and ideas. They open with Haydn’s famous and popular Sunrise quartet.

BIOGRAPHY

Formed in 2013, the Ficino Ensemble has been committed to exploring the vast chamber music repertoire and presenting thoughtfully programmed concerts. The group regularly performs as a string quartet, and the addition of winds and percussion gives the possibility of playing large-scale chamber works. The members share a dedicated approach to contemporary music and have premiered many works. In 2019 they collaborated with several composers of the Irish Composers Collective, where the musicians worked on pieces with the composers and premiered several new works for flute, harp and viola. Ficino Ensemble was recently joined by the Con Tempo String Quartet in a performance of works by Brahms, Mendelssohn and Enescu as part of the Dublin Enescu Festival. In 2018 they performed a concert with Olwen Fouéré as part of MusicTown in Dublin, which included a performance of Thomas Ades’ Four Quarters and Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 132. The group have recorded two acclaimed albums, Winter and Folk Songs.  Ficino Ensemble takes the name from Marsilio Ficino, the Renaissance philosopher who regarded music as a “contemplation of the divine”. ficinoensemble.com