Johann Baptist Vanhal (1739-1813)
Quatuors à cordes en mi bémol majeur

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
Quatuor à cordes en si bémol majeur, op. 50 n° 1

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Quatuor à cordes en do majeur, K. 465 "Dissonance"

Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf (1739-1799)
Quatuor à cordes n° 6 en la majeur

Simon Russel Beale, récitant
The Revolutionary Drawing Room

Adrian Butterfield, violon
Kathryn Parry, violon
Rachel Stott, alto
Ruth Alford, violoncelle

The Revolutionary Drawing Room, a string quartet which performs late eighteenth and early nineteenth century repertoire on period instruments, is releasing a new double-CD ‘A Viennese Quartet Party’ to mark their 25th anniversary in 2015. The idea for ‘A Viennese Quartet Party’ is based on the recollections of Michael Kelly, an Irish tenor who was the original Don Curzio in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. He described an occasion in 1784 in Vienna in his Reminiscences when he heard Mozart, Haydn, Vanhal and Dittersdorf playing quartets together. A script adapted from these Reminiscences, recorded by the actor Simon Russell Beale, sets the scene for this remarkable moment in time and intertwines Mozart’s ‘Dissonance’ quartet, Haydn’s quartet Op.50 No.1 and delightful works by Vanhal and Dittersdorf.