‘Quatuor Alfama’

The Alfama Quartet is adept in all spheres: it plays traditional concerts with a repertoire ranging from classic to contemporary music, gives performances especially for children and often plays in an extended format with piano, clarinet, cello and even singing. Alfama's versatility is also reflected in this concert. In addition to Dvorak's well-known “American Quarter” the performance includes Shostakovich's String Quartet N° 2, a work the Russian wrote in scarcely 19 days. Giacomo Puccini bettered this by putting the unique Crisantemi to paper in the space of just one night. The composer penned this one-movement elegy to commemorate the death of his friend Amadeus I, Duke of Aosta and King of Spain.