The actor and founder of Bell Shakespeare will be the voice of Beethoven in the Tinalley String Quartet’s new programme.

The Tinalley String Quartet will be joined by actor John Bell for the second programme of their 2016 season, entitled Speak Less Than You Know. The founder of Bell Shakespeare will read selections from Beethoven’s letters and memoirs, interspersed with music from his string quartets, in a reprise of Tinalley’s popular 2011 programme, Beethoven’s Letters.

The concert will open with Mendelssohn’s Second String Quartet, written the year of Beethoven’s death and born of Mendelssohn’s fascination with the older composer’s late quartets. Quartets from throughout Beethoven’s life will then be interspersed with his letters. “It starts with his first letter – the first letter we have, anyway – written at the age of 13 and finishes up with his very last letter, including the Heiligenstadt Testament,” Bell told Limelight. “So you could say it covers the arc of his life, but of course it doesn’t cover everything by any means – it would probably take a week to read all the letters.”

^{Actor John Bell will read Beethoven’s letters}

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