The Rodewald Concert Society is a promoter of chamber music

Chamber music

Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...

 in the Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

 and Merseyside

Merseyside

Merseyside is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 1,365,900. It encompasses the metropolitan area centred on both banks of the lower reaches of the Mersey Estuary, and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wirral, and the city of Liverpool...

 area of England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. The Society was established in 1911, in memory of Alfred E Rodewald (1861–1903), a well-respected amateur conductor in Liverpool, and close friend of Edward Elgar

Edward Elgar

Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...

 who dedicated the first of his Pomp and Circumstance Marches

Pomp and Circumstance Marches

The "Pomp and Circumstance Marches" , Op. 39 are a series of marches for orchestra composed by Sir Edward Elgar....

 to Rodewald.

For many years the Society has brought some of the finest chamber music ensembles to Liverpool, including string quartet

String quartet

A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...

s such as the Amadeus Quartet

Amadeus Quartet

The Amadeus Quartet was a world famous string quartet founded in 1947.Because of their Jewish origin, violinists Norbert Brainin, Siegmund Nissel and Peter Schidlof were driven out of Vienna after Hitler's Anschluss of 1938...

, the Smetana Quartet

Smetana Quartet

The Smetana Quartet was a Czech string quartet that was in existence from 1945 to 1989.- Personnel :1st violin* Václav Neumann , from 1943 to 1945* Jaroslav Rybenský, from 1945 to 1947* Jiří Novák , since 19472nd violin...

, the Janáček Quartet

Janácek Quartet

The Janáček Quartet is a Czech string quartet musical ensemble founded in 1947 which is still currently active.- Origins and activities :The Janáček Quartet was formed in 1947 by students of Váša Černý at the Conservatory of Brno, originally under the name JAMU Quartet. The quartet initially...

 and the Melos Quartet

Melos Quartet

The Melos Quartet, also called the Melos Quartet Stuttgart, is a German string quartet musical ensemble based in Stuttgart, that was in existence from 1965 to 2005....

, and other chamber groups such as the Beaux Arts Trio

Beaux Arts Trio

The Beaux Arts Trio was a noted piano trio. They made their debut on July 13, 1955 at the Berkshire Music Festival, known today as the Tanglewood Music Center. Their final American concert was held at Tanglewood on August 21, 2008. It was webcast live and archived on NPR Music...

. More recently, the Skampa Quartet, the Belcea Quartet

Belcea Quartet

The Belcea Quartet is a string quartet, formed in 1994, under the leadership of violinist Corina Belcea.-History:The quartet was formed while its members were studying at the Royal College of Music in London. Whilst there, they were coached by the Chilingirian Quartet...

 and the Florestan Trio have visited the Society. Recent seasons have offered audiences quality series of quartet concerts, lied

Lied

is a German word literally meaning "song", usually used to describe romantic songs setting German poems of reasonably high literary aspirations, especially during the nineteenth century, beginning with Carl Loewe, Heinrich Marschner, and Franz Schubert and culminating with Hugo Wolf...

er and piano recitals by Stephen Hough

Stephen Hough

Stephen Andrew Gill Hough is a British-born classical pianist, composer and writer. He became an Australian citizen in 2005 and thus has dual nationality .-Biography:...

, Paul Lewis, Nikolai Demidenko

Nikolai Demidenko

Nikolai Demidenko is a Russian pianist.Demidenko studied at the Moscow Gnessin School with Anna Kantor and at the Moscow Conservatoire under Dmitri Bashkirov. Demidenko was a medallist at the 1976 Montreal International Piano Competition and the 1978 Tchaikovsky International Competition...

 and Llr Williams.

The Society has also a record of commissioning new works, including a work by Hugh Wood

Hugh Wood

Hugh Wood is a British composer.- Biography :While Wood was brought up in a musical family, it was only after graduating in History from Oxford that he decided to dedicate his energies to composition; and he moved to London in 1954 to study with William Lloyd Webber, Anthony Milner, Iain Hamilton,...

 to celebrate Liverpool as European Capital of Culture

European Capital of Culture

The European Capital of Culture is a city designated by theEuropean Union for a period of one calendar year during which it organises a series of cultural events with a strong European dimension....

 in 2008.

It went through some financial difficulties during the 1990s, but the present chairman, committee and members of the public re-established it, allowing it to resume its activities. The Society relaunched its programme with the Beethoven Series Quartets Concerts and the Endellion Quartet

Endellion Quartet

The Endellion String Quartet is a British string quartet named after St Endellion in Cornwall.The quartet was formed in 1979 and has been 'Quartet in Residence' at Cambridge University since 1992. It has an extensive discography and appears in concert halls around the world. In 1997 the quartet...

 in 2000. Today, it is entirely reliant on the support of its members and patrons for its continuing survival.

While it is an independent charity, the Society enjoys a close working relationship with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society, with whom it plays a major role in completing the provision of a full range of classical musical performances for audiences in the Merseyside area.

Concerts were for many years held in the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, but since 2007 the Society held most of its concerts in the newly refurbished Small Concert Hall at St. George's Hall, Liverpool

St. George's Hall, Liverpool

St George's Hall is on Lime Street in the centre of the English city of Liverpool, opposite Lime Street railway station. It is a building in Neoclassical style which contains concert halls and law courts, and has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building...

.