Panufnik: Heartfelt
Beethoven: String Quartet in C sharp minor Op 131

Roxanna Panufnik’s Heartfelt was commissioned by the Sacconi Quartet in 2019 and is inspired by the heartbeat of a brown bear, as well as drawing on Uzbek and Bulgarian music. The result is a magical addition to the quartet repertoire, “a beautiful, imaginative exploration of that vital, beating organ” (The Observer) and “shot through with a poignancy that is infinitely touching” (Seen & Heard).

Beethoven’s late period saw a troubled, unwell, deaf man writing music of extraordinary intensity, innovation and profundity: after his vast ninth symphony, premiered in 1824, he turned almost solely to string quartets in his last years.

These late quartets were roundly dismissed by the audience of the day: composer Louis Spohr called them ‘indecipherable, uncorrected horrors’. And yet this music has had a deep effect on generations of composers since, and is today held to be some of the great art of all time.

Performers: Sacconi Quartet