Joseph HAYDN
Die sieben letzten Worte unseres Erlösers am Kreuze
"The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross"

Seven meditations on the last words of Christ: utterances taken from several gospels. Commissioned in 1787 for the Good Friday service at the Grotto Santa Cueva near Cádiz in southern Spain. Haydn thought this his greatest achievement.

This promises to be a rare and extraordinary event, in which the Navarra quartet will be accompanied by a display of paintings by Jamie Baird inspired by these seven words.

In 2008 the Navarra Quartet won the Outstanding Young Artist Award at the MIDEM Classique Awards in Cannes and in 2007 a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship. They won Second Prize in the 2007 Melbourne and First Prize in the Florence International Competitions.

Over the last year the Quartet has given debut concerts at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Philharmonie in Luxembourg and Schwetzinger Festspiele in Germnay. They took part in the Haydn series at Wigmore Hall broadcast by BBC Radio 3 and recorded a highly acclaimed disc of Haydn's 7 Last Words for Altara Records, supported by the BBC. Future engagements include recitals at Wigmore Hall and Aldeburgh, concerts in Switzerland, Italy and the Netherlands and a tour throughout Australia. In 2010 the Quartet record for Challenge Records.

"...the players realize the music’s essential intensity...with their vivid sense of dramatic expression in an intensely detailed performance". BBC Music Magazine Haydn 7 Last Words/Altara Records September 2009

The Society is supported financially and actively by Mountgrange Heritage
KCMS is grateful for the practical support of the RBK&C's Arts Service
Registered Charity Number: 291038