If the marketing gurus could get their hands on it they'd call it String Quartet Week. Over the next seven days there will be no less than a dozen opportunities to hear string quartets in concert. First off are the Vanbrughs (right), continuing their current tour of Beethoven, Piers Hellawell and Dvorak in Dublin (tomorrow afternoon), Lismore (Monday) and Cork (Thursday).
The all-female Lotus Quartet from Japan are in Virginia tomorrow evening, and will also be heard in Monaghan (Monday), Letterkenny (Tuesday), Ballymoney (Wednesday), Omagh (Thursday) and Antrim (Friday); they will later take their programme of Beethoven, Bartok, Jane O'Leary and Ravel to Downpatrick, Castlebar, Dublin, Cork, Listowel and Knocktopher. And, courtesy of the Dublin Theatre Festival, the Kronos Quartet are at the National Concert Hall for three nights (Monday to Wednesday), playing Philip Glass's music for Tod Browning's film, Dracula, with the composer and Michael Riesman on keyboards.
