
My Second String Quartet has received its world premiere at Aldeburgh, played by the Berlin-based Leonkoro Quartet. After the concert, we audience members spoke in awe of these very young people, still in their mid-twenties and in some cases still studying. The analytical seriousness of their approach to classical repertoire (the programme also included Haydn and Schubert) coupled with their elegant and refreshing stage presence was something really remarkable.
Listeners particularly remarked on the unity of their sound - we wondered if they were playing on a set of instruments by the same maker, but that was not so. As the composer, hearing my Quartet for the first time, I was simply grateful, but almost amazed too, at how perfectly in tune the music all was. It's by no means a given when new pieces for string quartets are played, and the now entrenched compositional trend towards timbral experiment above all else in this medium has not helped. It was exhilarating hearing all the perfectly placed chords and changing scorings, of which there are a great many in my piece. When I come across young musicians like this, I certainly don't think that "classical music is dead".