Lir Quartet

Fanny Mendelssohn - String Quartet in E flat major 

J.S. Bach - Chorale Prelude BWV 668 

Harry O’Connor - Summer Idyll (2024) 

Johannes Brahms - String Quartet in C minor Op. 51 No. 1

The outstanding Lir Quartet was formed in 2016 at Barry Douglas’ Clandeboye Festival. They come together this year for the first time since the pandemic, working as NSQF Fellowship Quartet at the ConCorda chamber music course in August, followed by a five concert summer tour of Cork and Kerry. This autumn they bring their superb summer programme to four venues nationwide.

Fanny Mendelssohn’s 1834 string quartet remained unpublished until 1988 but is now a core and much loved work in the quartet repertoire. Bach’s Chorale Prelude BWV668 offers a short interlude before a new quartet by Kerry composer Harry O’Connor. A graduate of MTU Cork School of Music, Harry is continuing his composition studies at Oxford where the Castalian Quartet premiered his fine Summer Idyll earlier this year. Brahms’ C minor quartet is one of the greats, its dramatic and impassioned outer movements contrasting with the sublime beauty and lyricism of the Romanze and the relaxed musings of the third movement.