Benjamin Britten – Rhiannon Randle – Gustav Mahler
La Serenissima
Britten’s Third String Quartet
We explore another great string quartet of the C.20th: Benjamin Britten’s Third String Quartet. It looks at the importance of place and home; life and death, and concludes several themes of Britten’s opera Death in Venice.
Mahler in Britten’s Third String Quartet
Britten deeply felt connected to Mahler and his music. He was one of the sole protagonists to get Mahler’s music heard and popularised in the UK and the USA in the 1930s. Believe it or not, Mahler was not a famous or popular composer until the 1960s. While Mahler wrote very little chamber music, his philosophy to incorporate it into his Symphonies inspired so many composers after him.
In La Serenissima, We thread together a programme inspired by Mahler’s music and philosophy on the world. His great love of Nature, his exploration of his local cultural routes in Bohemian folk music, his love of people and wanting to protect the world. Featuring an exploration and new arrangement of Mahler’s songs for string quartet and mezzo soprano (2025) by members of the Belinfante Quartet.
In La Serenissima, We center on Venice as a place, giving so many artists inspiration, and acting as a center for music in ancient times. We explore music of Venetian greats, as well as music, poetry and art all created by both residents and visitors to this great cultural hub.
A New Commission by Rhiannon Randle: Baile (2024)
We team up with British composer Rhiannon Randle, who spent a Summer in Benjamin Britten’s The Red House, researching his music for her Masters.
Her love of Britten and incorporating folk music into her own works, and her connection to local environmental causes has led to an exciting collaboration. To explore the string quartet form through Mahler’s philosophy on and love of Nature; Britten’s own deep connection to places (both Suffolk and Venice in his Third Quartet) and how traditional music can be both preserved and shared in new compositions. – Rhiannon will be looking at her connection to Irish fiddle music and home with Baile (2024)
We’d like to thank the Vaughan Williams Foundation for their support with this new commission.
Themes: Nature – Climate Change – Life & Death – Home – Place – Mahler
Music: Britten – Haydn – Mahler – Randle – Traditional music of Venice arranged by Belinfante Quartet
Death Of Venice
Presented by MERITA (2024-2025)
In 2023, the Belinfante Quartet were selected to be a member quartet of MERITA, a European Union funded cultural initiative for 38 string quartets. We had to propose a project to ‘turn concert hall into theatre’ to create, and tour to European cultural hubs.
Death Of Venice
A theatrical concert exploring Venice and places under threat due to climate change. Join four Venetian Gondoliers, as they journey through music of Venice’s past, present and future. Exploring spatial sounds in Medieval Venice, through the Renaissance, Baroque and more modern Gondolier songs to today. Presenting Benjamin Britten’s Third String Quartet, which seeks a conclusion to his opera ‘Death in Venice’. Interspersed with poetry readings of authors inspired by Venice, experience this great C.20th work from a new perspective. We leave you with a question about climate change – and hope for the future, with Rhiannon Randle’s new piece exploring home – Baile
Music: Gabrieli, Vivaldi and traditional Venetian Music – Benjamin Britten: String Quartet No.3 – Rhiannon Randle: Baile (2024)
Poetry/prose: Goethe – Thomas Mann – Lord Byron and others. Spoken in different languages, reflecting the international nature of the quartet members, and that European artists would travel to Venice as a cultural hub.
2024 April. Residency and concert: Vila Golescu, Romania
2025 Concerts
25th February 2025 7pm: Goethe Institute, Paris
22nd May 2025 7pm: University of Arts Tirane, Albania
6th June 2025 1pm: The Fitzwilliam Museum, Gallery 7. Cambridge, UK
Set against the backdrop of the museum’s Italian and Venetian art collection in Gallery 7
21st June 2025 tbc 7pm: The garden of the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer, Venice, Italy
Situated across the water from the church whose bells you can hear in the final movement of Britten’s Third Quartet: Santa Maria della Salute (. Built to commemorate the end of a plague (1630), its bells are only heard on one day in November.
