Carducci Quartet
Matthew Denton & Michelle Fleming violins
Eoin Schmidt-Martin viola, Emma Denton cello
Haydn Quartet in D Op 20 No 4 ‘Sun’
Ravel Quartet in F
Mendelssohn Quartet in F minor Op 80
The Carducci Quartet first played for Leamington Music in 2009 and this is its eighth concert in the town. The Carducci’s recent programmes here have included Shostakovich, whose full cycle the Quartet toured throughout 2015 with an accompanying CD release and which won a Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award. With welcome inclusions in the programme of works by Haydn, Ravel, and Mendelssohn, this is a sunny delight with musical flavours from across Europe for everyone to enjoy.
£27 | £17
(£1 children / students)
Dudok Quartet
Judith Van Driel & Marleen Wester violins
Marie-Louise de Jong viola, David Faber cello
Mozart Quartet in F K590 ‘Prussian’
Bacewicz Quartet No 4
Beethoven Quartet in E flat Op 74 ‘Harp’
The Dudok Quartet, based in Amsterdam and named after a famous modernist Dutch architect, Willem Dudok, not only excels in the core quartet repertoire but is admirably enterprising in the range of composers it programmes. The Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz, who studied with Nadia Boulanger, features in a Leamington Music concert for the first time; a fine violinist, pupil of Carl Flesch, and also a novelist, her Quartet No 4 was written in 1951 and immediately won First Prize at the Quartet Composition Competition in Liege that year.
Concert generously supported by David & Gina Wilson
£27 | £17
(£1 children / students)
London Haydn Quartet
Catherine Manson and Michael Gurevich violins
John Crockatt viola, Jonathan Manson cello
Jadin Quartet in B flat Op 1 No 1
Haydn Quartet in F Op 74 No 2
Mendelssohn Quartet in E flat Op 12
One of the world’s leading period instrument string quartets, The London Haydn Quartet was born out of a passion for Haydn. Founded in 2000, the Quartet has received invitations to many of the most important concert series throughout the world, and its recordings of the complete Haydn quartets on Hyperion has met with international critical acclaim. But, while Papa Haydn was these musicians’ original love, their discoveries along the way of the music of his contemporaries have uncovered much to be enjoyed, and this first quartet of Hyacinthe Jadin is one such treat.
£27 | £17
(£1 children / students)
Consone Quartet
Agata Daraškaite & Magdalena Loth-Hill violins
Elitsa Bogdanova viola, George Ross cello
Mozart Quartet in G K387
Arriaga Quartet No 2 in A
Mendelssohn Theme & Variations and Capriccio Op 81
Beethoven Quartet in F minor Op 95 ‘Serioso’
The first period instrument string quartet to be selected as BBC New Generation Artists, the Consone Quartet is fast making a name for its honest and expressive interpretations of classical and romantic repertoire. The Quartet comes to Leamington for its third visit, bringing favourites from Mozart, Mendelssohn, and Beethoven partnered with music by Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga – only twenty when he died in 1826 and often referred to as the “Spanish Mozart”.
£27 | £17
(£1 children / students)
Calidore Quartet
Jeffrey Myers & Ryan Meehan violins
Jeremy Berry viola, Estelle Choi cello
Beethoven Quartet in A Op 18 No 5
Korngold Quartet No 3 in D Op 34
Mendelssohn Quartet in E minor Op 44 No 2
Now based in New York, with a residency at the Lincoln Center, the Calidore Quartet was formed in 2010 in Los Angeles. The Quartet has benefitted from the BBC New Generation Artists scheme and has toured across Europe appearing at all the major halls. Korngold’s Quartet No 3 was written in 1945 when he was already an Oscar-winner for his film music; before he emigrated and landed up in Hollywood, he had been a child prodigy in Vienna, with his opera Die tote Stadt (written when he was just twenty) enjoying great acclaim.
£27 | £17
(£1 children / students)
Leonkoro Quartet
Jonathan Schwarz & Amelie Wallner violins
Mayu Konoe viola, Lukas Schwarz cello
Schubert Quartet in G minor D173
Janáček Quartet No 1 ‘Kreutzer Sonata’
Brahms Quartet in C minor Op 51 No 1
As winners of the 2022 London International String Quartet Competition, the Leonkoro (which means Lionheart in Esperanto) follows all this century’s other winners to Leamington – the Esmé, Van Kuijk, Arcadia, Danish, and Atrium Quartets – so our audience will know what standards to expect. In the Competition at the Wigmore Hall, the Leonkoro won nine out of the twelve prizes awarded. Based in Berlin, the Quartet also won the Bordeaux Competition in 2022 and became BBC New Generation Artists for two years.
£27 | £17
(£1 children / students)
FESTIVAL EXTRA!
Martinů Quartet
Lubomír Havlák and Adéla Štajnochrová violins | Martin Stupka viola | Jitka Vlašánková cello
Beneš String Quartet No 2 in F Op 30
Martinů String Quartet No 5
Dvořák String Quartet No 14 in A flat Op 105
The Martinů Quartet will be performing for the thirtieth time in Leamington and Warwickshire since first coming to the Warwick & Leamington Festival in 1998 – by far the most times for any visiting quartet.
The Quartet comes with some new members and a recently re-discovered Czech composer, Josef Beneš, who lived 1795 to 1873. A distinguished violinist, he wrote two quartets towards the end of his life, the second in 1871.
Concert generously supported by Hugh & Jane Beale
£26 | £16
(£1 children / students)
Arcadia Quartet
Ana Török and Răsvan Dumitru violins
Traian Boală viola, Zsolt Török cello
Haydn Quartet in B flat Op 33 No 4
Weinberg Quartet No 15
Beethoven Quartet in F Op 59 No 1
Winners of the 2012 London International String Quartet Competition, the Arcadia Quartet from Romania comes to Leamington for the third time. Interest in the Polish composer Mieczysław Weinberg, who was befriended by Shostakovich when, being Jewish, he fled to Russia in World War Two, has increased enormously in recent years. Weinberg wrote seven operas and 17 string quartets and we hope to programme more of this works in the future.
“…playing that maximises the emotional range explored in each work…” – BBC Music Magazine
£26 | £16
(£1 children / students)
Doric Quartet
Alex Redington and Ying Xue violins
Hélène Clément viola, John Myerscough cello
Beethoven Quartet in G Op 18 No 2
Berg Quartet Op 3
Smetana Quartet No 1 in E minor ‘From My Life’
Formed in 1998, the Doric Quartet performs for the fifth time in Leamington Music’s seventeen years – last appearing in the 2017 Festival. The quartet’s line-up has changed over the years but its pre-eminent position among British quartets remains at the top. Berg’s extraordinary Quartet sits between one of Beethoven’s earliest and Smetana’s great autobiographical work.
“…sumptuous sweetness and laser-like clarity…” – BBC Music Magazine
Concert generously supported by David & Gina Wilson
£26 | £16
(£1 children / students)
Piatti Quartet
Michael Trainor and Rebecca Chan violins
Tesuumi Nagata viola, Jessie Ann Richardson cello
Ullmann Quartet No 3 Op 46
Haas Quartet No 3
Beethoven Quartet in E minor Op 59 No 2
On Holocaust Memorial Day, the Piatti Quartet, performing in Leamington for the fourth time and making their Concertgebouw Amsterdam debut this November, play quartets by two of the Terezín composers who perished in Auschwitz in 1944. The programme concludes with a work by Beethoven that featured in the ghetto’s remarkable cultural life. Leamington has been a centre for Czech music for many years now and the Terezín story regularly remembered in our programmes.
“A signally impressive young ensemble” – The Sunday Times
£26 | £16
(£1 children / students)