The Boscobel Quartet return to St Catherine’s Hoarwithy on Saturday, June 30th to play three of the best-loved string quartets from the Golden Age of the genre.

They are calling the programme Sunshine and Shadows, reflecting the exuberant warmth of one of Haydn’s celebrated ‘Sun’ quartets. They will move, via the restless turbulence of Mozart’s Quartet No 15 in D minor to the dark depths of Schubert’s masterpiece Quartet No 14 in D minor Death and the Maiden, written when he knew he had not long to live.

This programme plots the rapid development of the string quartet from its Classical beginnings to the first flowering of Romanticism and these three pieces are among the most loved and often performed of the genre.

The Boscobelles – Sophie Barber and Iona Davies violin, Kate Fawcett viola and Kinga Gáborjáni cello – having performed together for many years with the Musical and Amicable period instrument ensemble, got together as a quartet. They asked to come to St Catherine’s with its beautiful interior and peerless acoustic.

Tickets £10 (two under 18 free) obtainable from Rossiter Books, High Street, Ross-on-Wye and The New Harp Inn, Hoarwithy. Send cheques with SAE to PCC of Hentland and Hoarwithy, Dason Court, Hentland, Ross-on-Wye, HR9 6LW. Enquiries: 01989 730439.