Darlington Quartet: Tango Sensations

Acclaimed saxophonist Jamie Oehlers joins the Darlington Quartet to perform Astor Piazzolla's gorgeous Five Tango Sensations.

In this late work, filled with passionate restraint and haunted by nostalgia, Piazzolla captures the essence of the tango. Bartok's extraordinary String Quartet No. 6 is also a distillation, this time of the composer's lifelong study of and love for the folk music of his native Hungary. Written in 1939, it is full of Bartok's unmistakable energy and rhythmic excitement, piquant harmonies and bold colours. But the lonely Mesto ('sad') motto which begins each movement reflects the composer's growing despair at the rise of fascism in Europe – and this was the last work he completed before emigrating to the USA.