I have been fortunate enough to see the excellent Quatuor Modigliani twice in the last three weeks – first in Montpellier and now in Monpazier in the Dordogne department of south-west France. Tonight’s performance in l’église de Monpazier was part of the Festival Eté musical en Bergerac.

Two of the three pieces in the first half of the concert, Haydn’s ‘String Quartet in G major, opus 54’ and Hugo Wolf’s ‘Italian Serenade’, were also played in Montpellier and tonight were performanced at the same high standard. The first half also contained Puccini’s ‘Crisantemi’, originally written as an elegy for the 1890 death of Puccini’s friend the Duke of Aosta, formerly King Amadeo I of Spain. It is a work full of emotion and was movingly played.

The highlight of the evening was Schubert’s ‘String Quartet no. 13 in A minor’, known as ‘The Rosamunde’. It was superbly played, as you might expect from a quartet whose latest CD release was a box set of all fifteen string quartets by Schubert. It was the only quartet to be published during the composer’s lifetime and takes its name from the play ‘Rosamunde, Princess of Cyprus’, for which Schubert composed incidental music, one of its themes reappearing in the quartet’s second movement. The beautifully melancholic main theme was played with great emotion and the Minuet was extremely elegant. It was an excellent performance to end a memorable concert.

Joseph Haydn ‘String Quartet in G Major op. 54 n°1; Hugo Wolf ‘Italian Serenade in G Major’; Giacomo Puccini ‘Crisantemi for String Quartet’; Franz Schubert ‘String Quartet no. 13 in A minor, The Rosamunde’.