Elias String Quartet at RNCM

Johnny James, Managing Editor

Book now

Elias String Quartet

21 November 2022

Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.

RNCM
Book now

On 21 November, the internationally celebrated Elias String Quartet will return to the RNCM to perform works by Haydn, Beethoven and Sally Beamish, following their announcement as Artists in Residence at the College.

Formed at the RNCM in 1998, the Elias String Quartet are one of the leading quartets of their generation, praised for their intense and vibrant performances, which they’ve taken around the world. “Few quartets at any stage of their evolution have this much personality”, wrote the Philadelphia Enquirer who caught them on their USA tour, while The Strad remarked on the ensemble’s ability to “live and breathe each phrase with an enraptured sensitivity which proves revelatory.”

The ensemble – Sara Bitlloch and Donald Grant (violins), Simone van der Giessen (viola) and Marie Bitlloch (cello) – have had a long association with the RNCM, culminating in their being named as Artists in Residence – an exciting announcement for budding string musicians at the College. Through workshops, teaching and performance, the Quartet will work closely with students during the RNCM’s anniversary year, giving them the invaluable opportunity of full immersion in string quartet training with a leading ensemble.

The 21 November concert is the first of two special events featuring the Elias (the second coming in spring 2023). The evening starts with Haydn’s String Quartet No 39 in F minor, seen as one of the composer’s most challenging and unsettling works. Next, it’s Sally Beamish’s Reed Stanzas, first premiered by the Elias at the 2011 Proms. “Reed” in the work’s title connotes areas of marsh and fen, and speaks to the landscape of the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides, where part of the work was written. Beamish also draws on the Gaelic roots of Donald Grant, making the most of the Elias’ second violinist’s talent as a Scottish fiddle player as well as violinist.

The Elias String Quartet have long been celebrated for their subtle and fiery interpretations of Beethoven, and so the composer’s String Quartet No 8 in E minor seems a fitting way to conclude this concert. Known for its intensity and characteristically Slavic themes, the second of Beethoven’s ‘Rasumovksy’ quartets is a tense and tumultuous piece, which never allows us to drift into complacency as moments of quiet anxiety explode into ferocious outbursts.

The concert is one of many highlights from the RNCM’s Autumn Season. Read our full highlights in our dedicated guide.

Where to go near Elias String Quartet at RNCM

Manchester
Restaurant
San Carlo Fumo

San Carlo Fumo is a sun trap on St Peter’s Square, serving up traditional Italian food at its best

Utility Gift Shop
Manchester
Shop
Utility Gift Shop

Utility Gift Shop on Oxford Road is all about products that are new, unique, quirky and cool. High street shopping at its best.

exterior of Contact Theatre building
Manchester
Theatre
Contact Theatre

Following a major redevelopment, the iconic venue on Oxford Road will be reopening its doors to welcome the public back into the building this autumn. 

The Salutation pub in Manchester
Manchester
Bar or Pub
The Salutation

This traditional boozer, surrounded by imposing flats and university buildings, was taken over by Trof (of the Deaf Institute fame). The Sally, as the regulars call it, hosts an energetic, arty crowd – and its recently expanded outside area is another good reason to visit.

What's on: Music

Summer at Aviva Studios
Until
ActivityManchester
Summer at Aviva Studios

From global dance and live music to storytelling, skateboarding and football, get ready for a dream summer on the banks of the River Irwell.

Free entry
the band
MusicLeeds
DIIV at Project House

Emerging from a four-year crucible of creative tension and personal reckoning, Brooklyn shoegazers DIIV return to Leeds.

From £22.50
Blondshell by Hannah Bon.
MusicManchester
Blondshell at New Century

With sardonic wit, towering hooks and distortion dialled high, Blondshell lands at New Century this September, armed with album number two.

From £24.00
Lyra Pramuk by Leonardo Scotti
MusicManchester
Lyra Pramuk at The White Hotel

Part prayer, part protest, part dancefloor séance – Lyra Pramuk brings her otherworldly live show to The White Hotel.

From £19.60
Sans Froid
MusicLeeds
Sans Froid at Wharf Chambers

Smart, eccentric, and gleefully out of step with trends – Bristol quartet Sans Froid bring their tangled, piano-led art-rock to Leeds.

From £8.00
MusicBlackburn
Confessional Festival

Blackburn’s Confessional Festival turns ten, celebrating with two days of live music set beneath the stained glass and vaulted stonework of Holy Trinity Church.

From £20

Culture Guides

Detail of an abstract sculpture, with burned materials and rusty chicken wire at the centre, with rusted metal bars bent around it.
Exhibitions in the North

Chocolate fountains, beautiful batiks and medieval marginalia - this month's supersized Exhibitions Guide has it all.

Literature Events in the North

The autumn leaves might be falling already, but the harvest is plentiful as the live literature scene gets back into the swing of things after a summer break...

Theatre in Manchester and the North
Theatre in the North

This season’s theatre is gloriously eclectic: from radical cabaret and reinvented classics to new musicals and boundary-pushing performance.

Cinema in the North

This month we recommend a season of Film noir, cult Australian movies and a huge celebration of DIY community cinema.