The Morello Quartet Concert with Theatre Dinner at the Tea House Theatre

Join us 30th September from 8 pm

A mixture of classical music, Nordic folk music, and a piece inspired by rhythms heard in African American churches accompanied with a specifically composed Theatre Dinner Menu for this occasion.

Please see the Theatre Dinner Menu below.

Concert entry £20

Concert and dinner £45

Book Here

The programme includes:

'Appetiser' - Charlton Singleton 'Testimony' and Gershwin 'Lullaby'

'Main Course' - Dvorak String Quartet no. 12 in F major 'American'

'Dessert' - Nordic Folk Music arr. The Danish String Quartet 'The Dromer,' 'Waltz after Lasse in Lyby,' 'Intermezzo,' and 'Shine you no More'

More info about the Morello Quartet below:

The Morello Quartet was formed in the autumn of 2019 by four good friends and colleagues wanting to play chamber music together. Recent performances include a concert of Haydn, Webern, and Dittersdorf as part of St. James’ Concert series in Paddington in March 2020 and George Enescu’s 1st String Quartet in the ‘Enescu and Friends’ concert series at the Romanian Cultural Institute, London in December 2020.

This past summer, wanting to create a programme that brought joy and peace to the audience after a long lockdown, they came together in June 2021 at a concert series at St. Anne’s Church, Wandsworth in which they performed Dvorak, Suk, and Nordic folk music. They have since performed several concerts in London, High Wycombe, North Aston, and as part of the Shipwright Festival in Deptford.

Future performances include at the Tea House Theatre in Vauxhall and at the St. Mary’s Recital Series, Aylesbury.

Information about music pieces and programme accompanied by fabulous meal courses:

Charlton Singleton 'Testimony'

Singleton's father was an African American Methodist pastor so he grew up with the music of the church. Later in his life, Singleton reflected on this memory of 'the harmonies that weren't necessarily the norm and the incredible timing of the rhythm.' There were also prayer bands that used their hands and feet to create rhythms. Singleton used these ideas to create 'Testimony' for the Kronos String Quartet.

Gershwin Lullaby

American composer and pianist George Gershwin composed the Lullaby for piano in 1919 and soon transcribed it for string quartet. Like his other works, Gershwin composed this piece heavily influenced by early jazz.

Dvorak String Quartet no. 12 in F major 'American'

In the summer of 1893, Antonin Dvorak, perhaps feeling a little homesick, he had moved the previous to New York from Prague to become director of the New National Conservatory, decided to spend some time in Spillville, Iowa where there was a small community of Czech immigrants. It was that summer that he composed and premiered this string quartet. The sounds of the vast open American prairie can be heard throughout this piece through the use of the pentatonic scale. The second movement is debated to either be inspired by an African American hymn or Native American folk music. Dvorak was also obsessed with American trains and birds. The sound of the Scarlet Tanager can be heard in the 3rd movement and the trains chugging away in the 4th movement.

Nordic Folk Music arr Danish String Quartet 'The Dromer,' 'Waltz after Lasse in Lyby,' 'Intermezzo,' and 'Shine you no More'

In 2014 the Danish String Quartet released a groundbreaking album of Scandinavian folk music titled Woodworks and another in 2017 titled Last Leaf. The Dromer is part of a folk collection from 18th century Denmark, but it's original roots go even further back to Scotland. Lasse in Lyby was a fiddler from a forest in southern Sweden who was very poor and tuned his strings flat so he wouldn't have to keep changing them. The Danish string quartet slowed down the tempo of this waltz imagining the fiddler alone deep in the forests of Sweden. The Intermezzo and Shine You No More composed by Rune Tonsgaard Sorensen, the first violinist of the quartet, was inspired by John Dowland, a 16th century English composer. We also hear strong influences from the French electronic duo Daft Punk.

Concert Only £20

Dinner & Concert £45