John Suchet's tribute to Peter Cropper, leader of the Lindsay Quartet, who has died aged 69

1 June 2015, 09:30 | Updated: 1 July 2015, 09:33

The leader of the world-famous Lindsay Quartet, and pioneer of Sheffield's Music in the Round festival, has died of a heart attack. Here, his friend and old school colleague, John Suchet, pays tribute to a unique musical talent.

"I was at Uppingham School with Peter Cropper in the early 60s. We both played the violin, but not quite to the same standard.

He was two years junior to me, and a new boy, when the violin teacher told me she was creating a school string quartet. Cropper was to be first violin, I was to be second.

On the day of our first rehearsal, in walked a scruffy teenager, hair all over the place, tie askew, dandruff on his black jacket. I smiled secretly. I'll soon see him off, I thought.

Then we started to play. I was sacked after that first rehearsal. He went on to better things.

I have seen Peter many times over the last few years. I have given my Beethoven talk at Music in the Round, the festival he ran for many years in Sheffield.

He will be remembered as the driving force of what I believe was the finest string quartet this country has ever produced, the Lindsay Quartet.

And we had many a chuckle over that first meeting."

Here are the Lindsays performing part of Beethoven's String Quartet in B flat major, Op. 130: