Fitzwilliam Quartet at Conway Hall, London on Sunday 21st May 2017

Please note: This concert is in the past and has already taken place.

Fitzwilliam Quartet

Part of the Conway Hall Sunday Concerts, Spring 2017 Season

Add to my Calendar 21-05-2017 18:30 21-05-2017 20:30 36 Fitzwilliam Quartet Lucy Russell (violin)Marcus Barcham-Stevens (violin)Alan George (viola)Sally Pendlebury (cello) The Fitzwilliam is now one of the longest established string quartets in the world: founded in 1968 by four Cambridge undergraduates, the quartet quickly achieved international recognition as a result of its members’ personal friendship with Dmitri Shostakovich and their subsequent championing of his string quartets. He entrusted them with the Western premières of the last three, and before long they had become the first ever group to perform and record all fifteen. These discs, which gained many international awards, secured for them a world wide concert schedule and a long term contract with Decca – all of them are newly available on their London or Eloquence labels. Since 2000 their recordings have been produced by either Linn Records or Divine Art, the most recent being the Bruckner String Quintet/Quartet, and a jazz fusion collaboration with German saxophonist/composer Uwe Steinmetz and former Turtle Island Quartet violinist Mads Tolling. A new Liz Johnson complete edition follows the four quartets of eminent geologist John Ramsay and a compilation of chamber works by the South African Michael Blake. In 2017 a more long term ambition to record Beethoven quartets on gut strings – following the success of previous recordings on historical instruments – will be set in motion with a CD of Opp.74/95/135. Indeed, the Fitzwilliam remains one of the few prominent quartets to play on older set-ups, but has simultaneously brought about the addition of over 50 new works to the repertoire. Having been Quartet-in-Residence at York for twelve years and at Warwick for three, their university work continues at Fitzwilliam College Cambridge, at Bucknell (Pennsylvania), and latterly at St Andrews – where they run an annual quartet course (“Strings in Spring”), alongside their regular coaching weekend for Benslow Music in Hertfordshire. Just before Easter this year they arrived in Cambridge more or less straight off the plane from New York, and from there went on to their other British university at St. Andrews, with the second Fitzwilliam Hay-on-Wye Festival squeezed in between. Another busy clutch of festivals followed soon after, including Beverley Early Music, the English Haydn, and Swaledale. The 2016/17 season began with an exceptionally busy September, which included London concerts in Southgate, Copped Hall (Epping), Stow Festival (Walthamstow), St John’s Smith Square, and King’s Place. fitzwilliamquartet.org Conway Hall, London DD/MM/YYYY

Details

Conway Hall
25 Red Lion Square
Camden
London
WC1R 4RL
England

Sunday 21st May 2017
6:30 PM

Programme

Johann Sebastian Bach – The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080: Extracts
Liz Johnson – Tide Purl
Dmitry Shostakovich – String Quartet no.13 in B flat minor, Op.138
Franz Schubert – String Quartet no.14 in D minor 'Death and the Maiden', D.810

Performers

Fitzwilliam String Quartet

Other concerts in this Series (+)

Programme Note

Lucy Russell (violin)
Marcus Barcham-Stevens (violin)
Alan George (viola)
Sally Pendlebury (cello)

The Fitzwilliam is now one of the longest established string quartets in the world: founded in 1968 by four Cambridge undergraduates, the quartet quickly achieved international recognition as a result of its members’ personal friendship with Dmitri Shostakovich and their subsequent championing of his string quartets. He entrusted them with the Western premières of the last three, and before long they had become the first ever group to perform and record all fifteen. These discs, which gained many international awards, secured for them a world wide concert schedule and a long term contract with Decca – all of them are newly available on their London or Eloquence labels.

Since 2000 their recordings have been produced by either Linn Records or Divine Art, the most recent being the Bruckner String Quintet/Quartet, and a jazz fusion collaboration with German saxophonist/composer Uwe Steinmetz and former Turtle Island Quartet violinist Mads Tolling. A new Liz Johnson complete edition follows the four quartets of eminent geologist John Ramsay and a compilation of chamber works by the South African Michael Blake. In 2017 a more long term ambition to record Beethoven quartets on gut strings – following the success of previous recordings on historical instruments – will be set in motion with a CD of Opp.74/95/135. Indeed, the Fitzwilliam remains one of the few prominent quartets to play on older set-ups, but has simultaneously brought about the addition of over 50 new works to the repertoire.

Having been Quartet-in-Residence at York for twelve years and at Warwick for three, their university work continues at Fitzwilliam College Cambridge, at Bucknell (Pennsylvania), and latterly at St Andrews – where they run an annual quartet course (“Strings in Spring”), alongside their regular coaching weekend for Benslow Music in Hertfordshire. Just before Easter this year they arrived in Cambridge more or less straight off the plane from New York, and from there went on to their other British university at St. Andrews, with the second Fitzwilliam Hay-on-Wye Festival squeezed in between. Another busy clutch of festivals followed soon after, including Beverley Early Music, the English Haydn, and Swaledale. The 2016/17 season began with an exceptionally busy September, which included London concerts in Southgate, Copped Hall (Epping), Stow Festival (Walthamstow), St John’s Smith Square, and King’s Place.

fitzwilliamquartet.org

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