Contempo wrap up lunchtime with Haydn’s Last Quartets

The final concert in the current Lunchtime with ConTempo series takes place in Galway City’s St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church next Tuesday, June 6, at 1.10pm, when the ConTempo Quartet will close the series with Haydn’s final string quartet – Op. 103.

This work is the fragmented final chapter in Joseph Haydn’s monumental string quartet oeuvre – which encompasses 68 works composed over more than four decades

In 1799, Haydn was commissioned to write a set of six quartets for the Bohemian prince, Prince Joseph von Lobkowitz, and had completed two by the summer of that year. However, other pressing work and his declining health prevented Haydn from producing more than two movements of the third quartet in the set – and it remained unfinished for over 200 years.

That was until a few years ago, when William Drabkin, Professor of Music at the University of Southampton, concluded Haydn’s work based on newly discovered sketches for the first movement. The completed four-movement work premiered in London in December 2013 and will provide a fitting close to Music Residency’s 2016/17 Lunchtime Series – ‘Haydn: The Last Quartets’.

These concerts are supported by The Arts Council, NUIG, and Galway City and County Councils. Admission to this event is free, open to all and early arrival is recommended. Lunchtimes with ConTempo will return in September 2017, taking place on the first Tuesday of each month until June (except January).

Meanwhile, the Galway Music Residency will present Family Lunchtime Concerts with special guests on Tuesday, July 4, and Tuesday, August 1, in St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church – especially for families and youngsters of all ages!

■ For further information on those and next Tuesday’s event, visit www.thegalwaymusicresidency.ie.