Artists In Focus: Brodsky Quartet
"I can't be bothered to think about people who have some vision of me as a pop singer or a rock 'n' roll singer and that this should prohibit me from entering into collaboration with so-called serious musicians. I'm a serious musician. I don't have the technique that these people do, but I'm completely serious about what I'm doing." That was Elvis Costello in 1993 shortly after the release of The Juliet Letters, a record in which he and the Brodsky Quartet simply astonished the musical world. Last month the Brodskys and Elvis Costello came into the BBC's
Maida Vale studios to record three songs, and today Petroc Trelawny is joined by Ian Belton, second violinist of the quartet, to discuss the history of this ground-breaking collaboration.
Brodsky Quartet/Elvis Costello Who Do You Think You Are?
Kreisler String Quartet in A minor
Brodsky Quartet/Elvis Costello Pills and Soap; Rocking Horse Road
Tchaikovsky String Quartet No 1 in D
Shostakovich Adagio for string quartet