Fitzwilliam String Quartet

Chamber Ensemble

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  The Fitzwilliam Quartet first sat down to play together as undergraduates during their inaugural term at Cambridge, in Autumn 1968. Their first concert appearance took place the following March, followed in June by their public debut at the Sheffield Arts Festival.

  After graduating in 1971, they went straight to their first professional appointment, as Resident Quartet at York University, where they quickly achieved worldwide recognition through their close association with Dmitri Shostakovich, who befriended them following a visit there to hear them play.

  The Fitzwilliam was one of the first of a long line of eminent quartets to have emerged under the guidance of Sidney Griller at the Royal Academy of Music, where they travelled from York every Monday for over three years. Since then they have performed across Britain, Europe, North America, the Far East, and Southern Africa, as well as making many award winning LPs/CDs for Decca and Linn.

  Today, over 40 years later, they are known for performing a wide repertoire on both early and modern instrument setups.

  Highlights for 2013 and beyond include concerts at Wigmore Hall, Leamington Festival and Kings Place; the filming of Britten’s third quartet for BBC4 as part of a new film in occasion of the composer’s Centenary; concert tours of Luxembourg, Scotland, and Italy; and exciting new residencies at St. Andrews University, at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania and the Tuckamore Music Festival in Canada.

  Fitzwilliam String Quartet is represented worldwide by Cinzia Crescini at Rayfield Allied.
  This biography is for information only and should not be reproduced.

• • Download press quotes

  • John Ramsay, the complete String Quartets. Divine Art Limited, msv 28528
    Released March 2012

    A notable contribution to the British quartet repertoire… well worth getting to know. All I can do is to recommend these discs very strongly. The performances seem excellent as is the recording quality, and the booklet notes are splendid.

    Alexander Leonard, Musical Opinion *****

    The playing is excellent and enthusiastic. All four of John Ramsay's String Quartets are worthy examples of the genre and undoubtedly deserve a place in the repertoire. They form an impressive cycle.

    John France, MusicWeb

    Sounds real, involved and borne by a living spirit..[No. 4] in particular has captured my unswerving attention. These masterful quartets are given here their world premiere recording by the distinguished Fitzwilliam String Quartet.

    Jean-Yves Duperron, Classical Music Sentinel

    The performances by the Fitzwilliam String Quartet are impeccable… razor sharp precision, confidence and emotional commitment. The sound is exceptionally clear.

    Robert E McQuiston, Classical Lost and Found

    [The Fitzwilliams] perform John Ramsay with the same intensity and attentiveness they have previously accorded Shostakovich.

    Byzantion, MusicWeb

  • Iffley Music Festival
    May 2011

    The quartet revealed a bright, muscular, and assertive sound as it embarked on one section of Haydn’s Seven Last Words.', 'The Fitzwilliams sound particularly well when playing quiet, reflective passages.', 'And indeed the Fitzwilliam’s performance emphasised the fact that there is a great deal more to this composer [Vaughan Williams] than hymn tunes and The Lark Ascending.', 'the Fitzwilliams delivered a commanding account of Schubert’s Death and the Maiden quartet. They produced the orchestral sound that Schubert wanted, with their playing running all the way from the yearning quality of the opening, to delicate variations in the second movement, to stormy power. The performance set the seal on an unusual and memorable concert.

    Giles Woodforde, The Oxford Times

  • Haydn Seven Last Words from the Cross
    Linn Records CKD 153

    A chaste, inward reading [of the Seven Last Words], deeply musical and thoughtfully articulated……I’ll stick with this beautifully balanced new recording.

    The Gramophone

    In this new recording [of The Seven Last Words] the members [of the FSQ] succeed fabulously well. This disc is an unmitigated delight…one of unrelenting beauty.

    Musical Heritage (USA)

    The Fitzwilliam quartet, on period instruments, give a superb performance of these marvellous pieces, conveying all the passion and poignancy in the music.

    Early Music News

• Fitzwilliam String Quartet Programmes

  THE LEGACY OF VIENNA

  • HAYDN - Divertimento in C major, Op.1/6
  • J STRAUSS - Tritsch-Tratsch Polka/Pizzicato Polka
  • BEETHOVEN - Grosse Fuge, Op.133
  • SCHUBERT - Quartet in D minor, D. 810 Death and the Maiden

  THE LEGACY OF VIENNA (2)

  • MOZART - Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, K. 525
  • WOLF - Italian Serenade
  • WEBERN - Bagatelles, Op.9
  • BRUCKNER - Quintet in F major (with Carolyn Sparey, viola)
  • OR
  • BRAHMS - Clarinet Quintet (with Lesley Schatzberger)

  SLAV PASSIONS

  • TCHAIKOVSKY - Youth pieces. Andante cantabile
  • SUK - Meditation on St.Wenceslas
  • BORODIN - Notturno
  • JANACEK - Quartet No.1, after L. Tolstoy's Kreutzer Sonata
  • GLAZUNOV - Alla Spagnuola
  • DVORAK - Quartet in F major, Op.96 American

  DEFINITIVE SHOSTAKOVICH

  • Quartet No.4
  • Quartet No.8
  • Quartet No.12

  SHOSTAKOVICH - STUDENT AND PROFESSOR

  • GLAZUNOV - Interludium in modo antico Op.15/3
  • SHOSTAKOVICH - Quartet No.11
  • SHNITTKE - Piano Quintet
  • RONALD STEVENSON - Recitative and Air, in memoriam Dmitri Shostakovich
  • SHOSTAKOVICH - Piano Quintet (with Anna Tilbrook)

  THE RUSSIAN TRADITION

  • BORODIN, GLAZUNOV, RIMSKY-KORSAKOV, and others: selections from Les Vendredis
  • SHOSTAKOVICH - Quartet No.1
  • TCHAIKOVSKY - Quartet No.2 in F major, Op.22

  THE RUSSIAN TRADITION (2)

  • GLAZUNOV - Alla Spagnuola, Op.15/1
  • SHNITTKE - canon in memory of I F Stravinsky
  • IPPOLITOV-IVANOV - Quartet No.1 in A minor
  • BORODIN - Quartet No.2 in D major

  THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

  • PURCELL - Fantasia No.11, Chacony in G minor
  • VAUGHAN WILLIAMS - Quartet No.2
  • MICHAEL BLAKE - Quartet in memory of William Burton
  • GERSHWIN - Lullaby
  • IVES Arguments
  • GRAINGER - Molly on the Shore
  • BARBER - Quartet Op.11 (including Adagio for Strings)

  THE STRING QUARTET ON STAGE (Music by opera composers)

  • PURCELL - Music from Dido and Aeneas
  • PUCCINI - I Crisantemi
  • SHOSTAKOVICH - Elegy and Polka
  • VERDI - Quartet in E minor
  • DONIZETTI - La Morte del Marchese Giuseppe Terzi
  • TCHAIKOVSKY - Quartet in B flat (1865)
  • MOZART - Divertimento in D major, K.136

  HAYDN BI-CENTENARY

  • HAYDN - Quartet in C major, Op.33/3 The Bird
  • MOZART - Quartet in B flat, K.458 Hunt
  • JOHN MARSH - Quartet in B flat, after Haydn’s Op.1 No.1 (1795c)
  • HAYDN - Quartet in D major, Op.50/6 Frog

  SWAN SONGS

  • BEETHOVEN - Quartet in F major, Op.135
  • SHOSTAKOVICH - Quartet No.15
  • BORODIN - Scherzo (arr from Symphony No.3)
  • HAYDN - Quartet in F major, Op.77/2
  • BRAHMS - Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op.115 with Lesley Schatzberger
  • MOZART - Quartet in F major, K.590 "Prussian'
  • FRANCK - Quartet in D major (1890)
  • JANACEK - Quartet No.2 'Intimate Pages' (1928)
  • SCHUBERT - Quintet in C major, D.956
  • with Moray Welsh
  • FAURE - Quartet in E minor, Op.121
  • MOZART LICHTENTHAL - Requiem in D minor, K.626

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