Four Barons String Quartet: GOVAN MUSIC FESTIVAL

Govan's resident string quartet performs a stunning line up of classic masterworks old and new, with tuneful cheer and dramatic atmosphere.

Schubert -Death and the Maiden (1824)

Moishe's Bagel - Timgad & Rosa Ravelska's Blind Date(arr. Ben Norris 2025)

Donnacha Dennehy - STAMP (to avoid erotic thoughts) (2008)

Grace-Evangeline Mason - Midnight Spires (2019)

Aaron McGregor - violin 1

Allison Stringer - violin 2

Zoe Matthews - viola

Marina Sanchez-Caballo - cello

Schubert's Death and the Maiden surrounds his trademark tunefulness with dark, turbulent feeling. At just 27 years old, knowing he was not long for this world, he brought together his renowned medolic skills for Viennese high society with a tremendous pathos, battling poverty, illness and depression to create one of the greatest quartets of all time.

Moishe's Bagel was a jazz infused Scottish Kelzmer Band from 2003 to 2022.

STAMP (to avoid erotic thoughts) takes its inspiration from some bars of an Italian Saltarello from the 14th century. This particularly wonderful dance switches time instantly from 7/8 to 6/8. Medieval musicologist, Johannes de Groecheio, wrote that its French counterpart, the Estampie, was so complex so that it obliged the young people dancing it to concentrate and avoid erotic thoughts!

Midnight Spires is a short work for string quartet inspired by life in the city of Oxford in the midnight hours, under the shadows of its spires and stars, and the warm, yellow glow of its street lamps.