Cheltenham festival

Town Hall, CheltenhamWith American Independence Day falling on the first Saturday of the Cheltenham festival, the Smith Quartet's triptych of American quartets was aptly chosen and proved an potent antidote to the usual notions of star-spangled banner flying.While George Crumb's Black Angels was inspired by Vietnam, its threnodies – a ghostly quotation of Schubert's Death and the Maiden Quartet included – are today all the more affecting for reflecting the continuing blight of war....

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