{"id":6209,"date":"2020-11-12T10:00:22","date_gmt":"2020-11-12T10:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larkreviews.co.uk\/?p=6209"},"modified":"2020-11-12T10:02:49","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T10:02:49","slug":"south-downs-summer-music-benyounes-quartet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/?p=6209","title":{"rendered":"South Downs Summer Music: Benyounes Quartet"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The South Downs Summer Music Festival may have had to be cancelled like so many other events this summer but St Andrew&#8217;s Church in Alfriston welcomed a live concert with a reduced, socially distanced, audience in September. The concert was recorded live and was broadcast on their new website on Sunday 8<sup>th<\/sup> November.<\/p>\n<p>It was given by the Benyounes Quartet, who were joined by Rebecca Jones<em>\u00a0viola<\/em>, Reinoud Ford<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><em>cello in Brahms Sextet no.2 in G major op.36<\/em><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Benyounes-Quartet.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-6211\" src=\"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Benyounes-Quartet.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Benyounes-Quartet.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Benyounes-Quartet-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The concert opened with Mendelssohn\u2019s String Quartet in E flat major op.12. Though the key might suggest a sunny work, the first movement has a lot of darker moments in the scoring, and many times of genuine reflection. The second movement brings a bright cantabile-like melody with a central section straight out of the Dream. The final movement brings energy and a lively rhythmic bounce. The acoustic in St Andrew\u2019s certainly helped the balance and warmth of the strings.<\/p>\n<p>The Brahms may be a more overtly romantic work but it also showed some Mendelssohnian lightness and fluidity, particularly in the final movement.<\/p>\n<p>The opening movement has the weight of a string orchestra, with particularly strong writing for the first cello. The scherzo has a fierce dance at its heart before the meandering lines of the slow movement.<\/p>\n<p>This was a finely balanced event \u2013 just a pity not more people were able to enjoy it live. Hopefully next year we will be back to normal.<\/p>\n<p><em><br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The South Downs Summer Music Festival may have had to be cancelled like so many other events this summer but St Andrew&#8217;s Church in Alfriston welcomed a live concert with a reduced, socially distanced, audience in September. The concert was &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/?p=6209\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6209"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6209"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6212,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6209\/revisions\/6212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}