FOLLOWING his bravura solo performance in March 2013, Steve Bingham returns to Peebles with his equally adventurous string quartet next month.

Having toured extensively in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Australia, the quartet has an international reputation for its interpretation of the classical repertoire and its fresh and exciting approach to new music.

The quartet have made regular appearances in London including concerts at the Purcell Room and St Martin in the Fields. The quartet has performed and recorded with many other notable musicians including clarinettist David Campbell, pianist Nigel Clayton and cellist Raphael Wallfisch.

Amongst the Bingham String Quartet’s notable recordings are the middle period quartets of Elizabeth Maconchy, two CDs of the quartet’s own commissions from young British composers and a musical version of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” by Richard Allain, narrated by Richard Stilgoe. Several other albums are also available which include works by Shostakovich, Barber, Haydn and more.

In this concert, the quartet demonstrate their flair for mixing the classical with the contemporary with two masterpieces of the mainstream repertoire flanking two key works by pioneers of Minimalism. ‘Different Trains’ is an early example of the use of sampling and electronics in classical music (and marks Steve Reich’s 80th birthday year), while ‘Company’ is a short work written for a staging of Samuel Beckett’s novel of that name.

This fascinating concert also opens with a work inspired by literature (Tolstoy’s novella, named in turn after Beethoven’s famous violin sonata) and ends with Beethoven’s own magnificent, serene, ‘Harp’ quartet.

The quartet play the Eastgate in Peebles on Tuesday, March 1 at 7:30pm. Tickets are priced £14. Free for MiP members and students.