Filmed by Jessie Rodger at The Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London.

Sound: Brett Cox

‘The Quartet for One all happens inside the head of a viola player who imagines (wishes?) that he is giving a concert with his string quartet in front of a large appreciative audience (a common lockdown experience among musicians!). In fact he is alone on stage in an empty hall, but he really does play a quartet! 

Each of the four strings on his instrument corresponds to an instrument of the quartet. Starting with a solo for viola (on the 3rd string) he is then joined by the cello (4th string) for a duo on two strings, then by the second violin (2nd string) for a trio on 3 strings and finally by the first violin (1st string, of course!) for a full quartet.’

1: Nervous - solo viola - 0:38
2: Expressivo - cello and viola - 2:01
3: Waltz - 2nd violin, viola and cello - 3:35
4: Virtuoso - quartet - 5:03

Stay tuned for the next Lockdown Commissions, including World Premieres by Cassandra Miller, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Thomas Larcher.

This exciting project is made possible by The Viola Commissioning Circle and funded by a generous donation from Nicholas and Judith Goodison.