The Night Shift: The Old Queens Head
Doors open 7.30 pm
Live music from 8.30 pm
– interval 9 pm (ish) –
Gig ends 9.30 pm (ish)
In The Night Shift we like to imagine our shared history with 18th century composers – including the (very) young Mozart – who could often be found playing in noisy, bustling pubs cheered on by a crowd relaxing with a pint and enjoying the music.
Fair enough. It’s a gig in a pub.
Tonight we perform two string quintets by composers who made it their niche. Luigi Boccherini (1743 – 1805) and Georges Onslow (1784 – 1853). Both wrote stacks of them.
Boccherini was, by all accounts, a phenomenal cellist. Born in Italy, he spent time in Vienna before settling in Madrid. Although still under-appreciated today his string quintets have long been admired by connoisseurs of the genre. This evening’s set features his Opus 25 No. 2 in E flat major.
Onslow’s most extraordinary quintet, No. 15, has a rather unusual nickname. Earned when he forgot to tell his friends where he’d be sitting doodling whilst out hunting wild boar, Georges maintained that he never had any regrets about how ‘The Bullet’ came to be written.
Spaces limited, book early to avoid disappointment.
