Having made their debut here in 2016, when they joined forces with the Sacconi quartet in a performance of Mendelssohn’s octet, the Marmen have gone from strength to strength winning international acclaim for the intensity and vitality of their music making. In this, their fourth visit to Wallingford they will play three great masterpieces from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.

Haydn’s quartet is the second of a set of six quartets Op. 50 from 1787 that Haydn dedicated to King Frederick William of Prussia, a keen cellist, who had previously shown a great liking to Haydn’s work. Beethoven’s Quartet Op 59 no 2 is one of three works commissioned by Count Razumovsky, the Russian ambassador in Vienna: Beethoven responded by including a Russian theme in each quartet. The music of both Haydn and (especially) Beethoven were both considered avant-garde in their day and we contrast their music with the avant-garde of half a century ago: the Hungarian composer Ligeti, who wrote his second quartet in 1968.