DEATH AND THE MAIDEN String Quartet No. 14, D 810   FRIDAY 25th March 2011 at 7:00pm   Featuring :The Boys and Men of All Saints and the Tyburn Quartet.

On Friday 25 March we keep the season of Lent and mark the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary with a concert of music by Franz Schubert (1797-1828) combining both themes – Death and the Maiden.

		An enormously prolific composer despite his tragically short life, Schubert wrote over six hundred songs, nine symphonies, five masses, and numerous piano compositions. Only about twenty-five percent of his compositions had been published at the time of his death, but musicians and audiences nevertheless recognized that Schubert was a remarkable talent. As the poet Franz Grillparzer wrote on the inscription of Schubert’s grave, “The art of music has here entombed a rich treasure but even fairer hopes.” In the first half of the concert the twenty-four Boys and sixteen Men of All Saints, accompanied by the Tyburn Quartet and organist Roger Palmer, will perform his lyrical and fiery Mass in G D167, the impassioned and tortuous Stabat Mater D175 and the ever-popular setting of Ave Maria D839. The concert concludes with his String Quartet No. 14 in
D minor, known as Death and the Maiden; one of the pillars of the chamber music repertoire. Composed in 1824, after the composer suffered through a serious illness and realized that he was dying, it is Schubert's testament to death. The quartet is named for the theme of the second movement, which Schubert took from a song he wrote in 1817 by the same title; but the theme of death is palpable in all four movements of the quartet.

		All Saints is delighted to welcome the Tyburn Quartet for this concert, violinist Charlotte Skinner being well-known to us as one of our regular collaborators at our orchestral Masses, and as sometime leader of the County Youth Orchestra. In 2010 the Tyburn Quartet was the recipient of the John Baker Award at the RAM, and have become renowned for their interpretation of the works of Schubert. They come to us fresh from their February 2011 debut at St Martin-in-the-Fields. This is the second in a series of concerts given by the choir in 2011, the next being a feature on the music of Jean
Langlais (1907-1991) on the 20th anniversary of his death, Sunday 8 May at 6:00pm, including two of his Mass settings (Messe Solennelle and Missa ‘Dona nobis pacem’) and two of his most popular organ works (Suite Médiévale and Three Characteristic Piece). Tickets cost £10 with £7 concessions (UB40, Student Card, Pensioners, which proof must be provided at the door) and are available for purchase by credit or debit card on the website here. £5 tickets are available to members of the Friends of All Saints’ Music; these can only be purchased directly from the Music Department. Limited tickets will be available on the night from “doors open” at 6:30pm. The All Saints' Bistro will be open for refreshments during the interval and the Church is wheelchair-accessible and has a suite of modern lavatories. For more information please contact the Music Department on 01604 623845 or e-mail music@allsaintsnorthampton.co.uk