We welcome back the prize-winning Piatti Quartet, who have performed in major venues and festivals around the UK, given concerts throughout the world, and broadcast on BBC Radio and overseas.

Edward Elgar wrote his only string quartet at the end of the First World War, in a period of creative inspiration that also produced the Piano Quintet, Violin Sonata and Cello Concerto. The slow movement was a favourite of Lady Elgar’s, and was played at her funeral in 1920.

The Piatti Quartet, who are passionate advocates of contemporary music, commissioned a string quartet from Joseph Phibbs, and gave the première in 2014 to critical acclaim of both the work and their performance.

Alexander Borodin had a distinguished career as a physician and a research chemist, composing only in his spare time; his much-loved second quartet was written during a summer vacation. It achieved even wider fame when themes were used in the musical Kismet in 1953.