Quartets for Palm Sunday

Hailed as one of the most charismatic and adventurous string quartets on the British chamber music scene, the Villiers Quartet have developed an international reputation as exceptional interpreters of English composers. In this programme, they give the first complete concert performance of Ailsa Dixon’s Variations on Love Divine, alongside Haydn’s intensely moving musical rendition of Christ’s Seven Last Words from the Cross. Woven around Stainer’s familiar hymn, the Variations offer a musical exploration of the meanings of divine love in a series of scenes from the incarnation to the ascension and a culminating vision of heavenly joy. This spiritual journey takes us through a sound-world that is by turns mysterious, lyrical, dramatic, poignant, and finally exultant in the Song of Praise and the Dance of Joy.

‘the Villiers musicians open their hearts, mining the music’s expressive core with a sense of awe and wonder’   The Strad

‘playing of exquisite beauty’     Yorkshire Post

Tea and cake will be served after the concert.