For the next few months, you will see two brochures from Malvern Concert Club (MCC) on display around Malvern. The new dark red booklet is for the 2024-25 season at Malvern Theatres, for Sunday evening and afternoon recitals from September 2024 by Angela Hewitt, The Nash Ensemble, Maria Wƚoszczowska and Alasdair Beatson, the Pavel Haas Quartet, Roderick Williams, Carolyn Sampson and Joseph Middleton, and the Sitkovetsky Trio.
The dark green booklet covers the 2023-24 season which is just about to end, but on pages 12-15 is the programme for a very special weekend in June. Over three days from 7 to 9 June 2024, the Brodsky Quartet will play all 15 of the string quartets by Dmitry Shostakovich in The Forum, at Malvern Theatres on Grange Road. Both brochures can also be downloaded from the Malvern Concert Club Website.
Friday 7 June 7.30 pm: Quartets 1, 2 & 3
Saturday 8 June 3.00pm: Quartets 4, 6 & 5
Saturday 8 June 7.30pm: Quartets 7, 8 & 9
Sunday 9 June 11.30am: Quartets 11, 12, 13 & 14
Sunday 9 June 3.00pm: Quartets 10 & 15
The name Brodsky has a long association with Malvern Concert Club. It began when Edward Elgar invited his friend, the renowned Russian violinist Adolph Brodsky and his quartet to play Beethoven’s Opus 59 no.1 String Quartet at the first ever MCC concert in October 1903. The modern Brodsky Quartet, which was formed in 1972 and is named after Elgar’s friend, performed the same quartet at the Club’s centenary concert in October 2003.
The Quartet opened the Club’s 2022-23 season with a concert including Shostakovich’s String Quartet No.8 Opus 110. They have now generously offered to bring all 15 of Shostakovich’s Quartets to Malvern to extend their 50th Anniversary celebrations.
Representatives from Malvern Concert Club heard the Shostakovich Quartets played by the Brodsky Quartet and their students over a week at Dartington Music Summer School. They found the experience was both deeply engaging and moving, particularly when combined with stories of Shostakovich’s life and friendships, which the Quartet will include as pre-concert talks and introductions to individual works in June. They very much look forward to the Quartet’s return to Malvern for what promises to be a memorable weekend.
Tickets are available (£25.00 per concert; £100 for all 5 concerts; plus 12% booking fee for non-members of Malvern Theatres’ schemes). Book online at malvern-theatres.co.uk – search for Brodsky – or call 01684 892277 (the 5 concert package can only be booked by phone).
Malvern Concert Club members for the 2023-24 and/or 2024-25 seasons can purchase tickets from the Membership Secretary for £20.00 per concert or £80.00 for all 5 concerts. Please see malvern-concert-club.co.uk for more details.
For visitors, the Forum Theatre is within walking distance of Great Malvern Station, hotels, bed and breakfast accommodation, places to eat and of course, the Malvern Hills with stunning views over the Severn Valley, Herefordshire and as far as Wales, weather permitting.
Image: The Brodsky Quartet © Sarah Cresswell
