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The Lichfield Festival has for many years presented a programme with plenty of variety - mainly focussed on classical music, but with jazz, folk music and drama too, writes John Watson. This year festival director Damian Thantrey and his team have exceeded themselves, with a rich programme also embracing world music, soul music and opera as well as orchestral, choral and chamber music. Appropriately, though, the strongest focus remains on a very broad programme of classical music, including a stunning performance on Friday, July 5, by the immensely accomplished Brodsky Quartet, who this year are performing concerts featuring the entire string quartet works of Shostakovich.

The cycle continues throughout the festival at The Hub arts centre, and opened with dazzling interpretations of the composer’s String Quartets from 1 to 3. The shimmering lightness of Quartet No. 1 was a joyful introduction, in contrast to the darker, emotionally intense Quartet No.



2, and the complex but entertainingly playful Quartet No.3. Marvellous playing - but the enjoyment was marred to some extent by the background thump of a disco at a nearby pub throughout the performance, and also by a clearly sadly deranged audience member who muttered gibberish to himself all too frequently during the music.

On Saturday, young Chinese bassoon virtuoso Siping Guo gave a dazzling display of his mastery of the instrument at St Michael’s Church. He opened unaccompanied - and quite brilliantly - with the Sonata .

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