Suvarna Garge (Editor)

Fitzwilliam Quartet

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Active from
  
1968

Genre
  
Classical

Fitzwilliam Quartet wwwfitzwilliamquartetorguploads21572157158

Members
  
Heather Tuach, Marcus Barcham-Stevens

Albums
  
The String Quartets, String Quintet & Quartet

Record labels
  
Decca Records, Universal Music LLC

Similar
  
James Gilchrist, Anna Tilbrook, Alan Hacker, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Nigel North

Profiles

The Fitzwilliam Quartet (FSQ) is a string quartet currently consisting of Alan George, viola; Heather Tuach, violoncello; and Lucy Russell and Marcus Barcham-Stevens, violins.

Founded in 1968 by four Cambridge undergraduates, the Fitzwilliam Quartet was one of the first of a long line of quartets to have emerged under the guidance of Sidney Griller at the Royal Academy of Music. They became well known through their close personal association with Dmitri Shostakovich, who befriended them following a visit to York to hear them play. He entrusted them with the Western premières of his last three quartets, and before long they had become the first group to perform and record all fifteen. These recordings gained international awards, and secured for the quartet a worldwide concert schedule and a long term contract with Decca/London.

In 1977, they won the first ever Gramophone Award for chamber music. In November 2005 the Shostakovich set was included in Gramophone magazine's "100 Greatest Recordings". Today, the FSQ performs a wide repertoire, from the late 17th century to the present day, and remains one of the few established quartets to play on historical instrument setups.

In 1998, they re-established their connection with Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, their namesake and their original rehearsal venue, when they were appointed Resident Quartet; they perform and lead workshops at the college. In 2010 they began a residency at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, where they hold an annual string chamber music workshop, Strings in Spring. They are in residence at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.

In May 2000, a collaboration with Linn Records began with Haydn's The Seven Last Words of Christ. Recordings continued with the Brahms Clarinet Quintet together with clarinetist Lesley Schatzberger. They have made a disc of 20th-century English songs with piano quintet (including Vaughan Williams's On Wenlock Edge), featuring collaborations with James Gilchrist and Anna Tilbrook. 2012 saw the release of two contemporary recordings, by geologist and composer John Ramsay on Divine Art Records and by South African composer and pianist Michael Blake.

In addition to his Fitzwilliam duties, Alan George is the Musical Director of the Academy of St Olave's chamber orchestra.

Songs

The CurlewOn Wenlock Edge · 2007
I ModeratoRamsay: String Quartets Nos 1-4 · 2013
Two pieces : I Elegy1990

References

Fitzwilliam Quartet Wikipedia