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This performance is currently available as part of a Musica Vivia Australia 2026 Season Subscription. Single tickets go on sale at 9AM AEST on Wednesday 15 October.


Thomas Adès' Alchymia has been hailed as ‘simply one of the best chamber music compositions of our time’ (Guardian). Inspired by the music of Shakespearean England, but with a voice all of its own, this major work for string quartet and basset clarinet was premiered in 2021 and has become an instant classic. Musica Viva Australia is excited to present the London-based Doric String Quartet performing this ‘magical and arresting’ (The Times) work with the ‘brilliance, charisma and sensitivity’ (The Mercury) of Australian clarinettist Lloyd Van’t Hoff. 

Then the Doric String Quartet invites us to join them for a while on their multi-year project performing and recording Beethoven’s complete string quartets. We’ve arrived at the first of Beethoven’s radical ‘Razumovsky’ Quartets, which combines profound emotion with daring originality. The Strad’s response to this latest leg of the journey says it all: ‘Intelligent, spontaneous-sounding, technically immaculate.’

Time stood still in the Andantino (no one does ppp quite like the Dorics) while the Finale was rendered with pure passion. Bachtrack

Lloyd Van’t Hoff is a technical and expressive master of his instrument. The Age

  • Britten
    Three Divertimenti for String Quartet
    Thomas Adès
    Alchymia
    Beethoven
    String Quartet in F major, Op. 59 No. 1 ‘Razumovsky’

  • Doric String Quartet
    Maia Cabeza
    Violin
    Ying Xue
    Violin
    Emma Wernig
    Violin
    John Myerscough
    Cello
    Lloyd Van’t Hoff
    Basset Clarinet