Elias Quartet

Sara Bitlloch violin Donald Grant violin Simone van der Giessen viola Marie Bitlloch cello

Haydn Quartet in F sharp minor, Op 50 No 4 Florence Price Quartet No 2 in A minor Beethoven Quartet No 8 in E minor, Op 59 No 2 Rasumovsky

On 15 June 1933, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performed a new piece by an unknown composer. The work had won first prize in a competition. The Chicago Daily News declared it ‘a faultless work, a work that speaks its own message with restraint and yet with passion… worthy of a place in the regular symphonic repertoire.’ The unknown composer was Florence Price. She was the first African American woman to have her music performed by a major symphony orchestra. Join us tonight as the Elias Quartet perform her Quartet No 2 as part of their programme.

The Elias Quartet begin with Haydn’s rarely heard quartet, one of a set of six written for the King of Prussia. The evening closes with Beethoven’s popular quartet, one of the set of three dedicated to Count Rasumovsky.