Haydn’s ever-popular opus 54 quartets have been savoured by lovers of chamber music since 1788. Ralph Vaughan Williams composed his Quartet no.1 a century ago - in 1908. Completing this concert programme is a work composed for the Sacconi Quartet by Welsh composer John Metcalf in 2007. While Metcalf’s cultural roots are in the heart of Wales, his large body of work has a broad international following and is represented in a growing catalogue of recordings.

Formed in 2001 whilst the players were students at the Royal College of Music, the Sacconi Quartet is now one of the outstanding quartets of its generation, winning numerous prizes, recording albums, regularly filling the Wigmore Hall and touring worldwide. The players arrive in Swaledale hot-foot from their inaugural Sacconi Chamber Music Festival in Folkestone. In 2007 they gave the world première of John Metcalf’s quartet, and in 2008 they will première Robin Holloway’s String Quartet No.2 in Madrid and Brancaster.

"The chemistry between these four young players is tangible and magical."
The Scotsman