Blog

Bridge Quartet – Friday 12 March

Bridge Quartet

Colin Twigg and Catherine Schofield violins
Michael Schofield viola, Lucy Wilding cello

Haydn   String Quartet in D minor ‘Fifths’, Op. 76 No.2 
Bridge  String Quartet No. 2 in G minor, H. 115
Tchaikovsky   String Quartet No. 1 in D major, Op. 11

 

Over their 30 year career, the Bridge Quartet have given concerts all over the world. Their history has been sprinkled with “discoveries” of British music, and their extensive, highly praised recording legacy began with three CDs of chamber music by their namesake Frank Bridge. We are treated to the second of his quartets in this programme along with Haydn’s famous ‘Fifths’ and Tchaikovsky’s incredibly beautiful First Quartet which, astonishingly, will be a first for a Leamington Music audience – what a way to finish the season!

The finer details…

Interval: 20 mins

Estimated finish: 9.30pm

Tickets

Front Nave: £29 full price | £3 child/student
Middle Nave: £24 full price | £12 under-35s | £3 child/student
Rear Nave & Sides: £19 full price | £9.50 under-35s | £3 child/student

 

Van Kuijk Quartet – Friday 12 February

Van Kuijk Quartet

Nicolas Van Kuijk and Sylvain Favre-Bulle violins
Emmanuel François viola, Anthony Kondo cello

Mozart   String Quartet No. 16 in E flat major, K428
Henriëtte Bosmans   String Quartet (1927)
Schumann   String Quartet No. 2 in F major, Op. 41 No. 2

 

 

Winners of the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition in April 2015, the Parisian Van Kuijk Quartet became BBC New Generation Artists and performed for Leamington Music the following November with a totally French programme. Further prizes including the Trondheim have followed as the Quartet’s flourishing career has taken them all over the world. This is their third visit to Leamington, and this time they bring the quartet by the Dutch composer Henriëtte Bosmans to take its rightful place with music by the masters, Mozart and Schumann.

 

The finer details…

Interval: 20 mins

Estimated finish: 9.30pm

Tickets

Front Nave: £29 full price | £3 child/student
Middle Nave: £24 full price | £12 under-35s | £3 child/student
Rear Nave & Sides: £19 full price | £9.50 under-35s | £3 child/student

 

 

Maxwell Quartet – Friday 15 January

Maxwell Quartet

Colin Scobie and George Smith violins
Elliott Perks viola, Duncan Strachan cello

Haydn    String Quartet, Op. 20 No. 2 in C major
Prokofiev   String Quartet No. 2 in F major, Op. 92
Eleanor Alberga   String Quartet No. 4 (2026)
arr. Maxwell Quartet   Folk Music of Scotland

 

First Prize and Audience Prize winners at the 9th Trondheim International Chamber Music Competition, the Scottish Maxwell Quartet is now firmly regarded as one of Britain’s finest young string quartets, with a strong connection to their folk music heritage and a commitment to bringing together wide-ranging programmes to expand the string quartet repertoire.

 

The finer details…

Interval: 20 mins

Estimated finish: 9.30pm

Tickets

Front Nave: £29 full price | £3 child/student
Middle Nave: £24 full price | £12 under-35s | £3 child/student
Rear Nave & Sides: £19 full price | £9.50 under-35s | £3 child/student

 

 

LANO String Quartet – Tuesday 17 November

LANO String Quartet

Shuwei Zuo and Yuwen Fan violins,
Jinhe Huang viola, Nick Stringfellow cello

Caroline Shaw   Plan and Elevation (2015)
Haydn   String Quartet, Op. 64  No. 5 in D major, ‘The Lark’
Elgar   String Quartet  in E minor, Op. 83

 

The winners of the 2025 Leamington Music Prize competition Audience Prize come to us fresh from performances at the Elgar Festival and elsewhere across the UK and beyond. It was this work by Caroline Shaw that won over the audience in our competition and the piece, together with these beautiful works by Haydn and Elgar will make for a wonderful morning’s enjoyment.

 

The finer details…   

Coffee served from 11am

Interval: none

Estimated finish: 12.30pm

Tickets
Unreserved: £19 full price | £9.50 under-35s | £3 child/student

Martinů Quartet – Friday 6 November

Martinů Quartet

Lubomír Havlák and Adéla Štajnochrová violins
Martin Stupka viola, Jitka Vlašánková cello

Ravel   String Quartet in F major
Martinů   String Quartet No. 2
Smetana   String Quartet No. 1 in E minor, ‘From My Life’

 

The much-loved Martinů Quartet return for their thirty-fourth concert in Leamington and Warwickshire since first coming in 1998 (by far the most visits for any quartet!) with a signature mix of Czech composers to continue Leamington Music’s forte for the music (and musicians) of that land plus Ravel’s arresting work to make for a very special evening.

Concert generously supported by Diane Holt

 

The finer details…

Interval: 20 mins

Estimated finish: 9.30pm

Tickets

Front Nave: £29 full price | £3 child/student
Middle Nave: £24 full price | £12 under-35s | £3 child/student
Rear Nave & Sides: £19 full price | £9.50 under-35s | £3 child/student

 

 

Opus13 – Friday 9 October

Opus13

Sonoko Miriam Wilde and Edvard Erdal violins
Albin Uusijärvi viola, Daniel Thorell cello

Beethoven   String Quartet in D major, Op. 18 No. 3
Thomas Adès   Arcadiana, Op. 12
Brahms   String Quartet in C minor, Op. 51 No. 1

 

First Prize winners at both the 2025 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition and the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition,  and now BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists, the Oslo-based Opus13 is rapidly building a reputation on the international chamber music scene. Evergreens from Beethoven and Brahms balance an early work by Thomas Adès written in 1994 and designed to evoke images of the idyll.

 

The finer details…

Interval: 20 mins

Estimated finish: 9.30pm

Tickets

Front Nave: £29 full price | £3 child/student
Middle Nave: £24 full price | £12 under-35s | £3 child/student
Rear Nave & Sides: £19 full price | £9.50 under-35s | £3 child/student

 

Coull Quartet – Thursday 17 September

Coull Quartet

Roger Coull and Paul Barritt violins
Jonathan Barritt viola, Nicholas Roberts cello

Haydn   Quartet, Op. 74 No. 1 in C major
Dvořák   String Quartet No. 9 in D minor, Op. 34
Beethoven   String Quartet No. 1 in F major, Op. 18 No. 1

Plus a special guest appearance by the Rugby-based
Ukrainian Shchedryk Choir

A fundraising concert for Ambulances for Ukraine.

With this concert, one Leamington-based charity will help another – Leamington Music is supporting the work of Belveder CIC, which purchases decommissioned vehicles from the UK ambulance service and drives them to Poland, where they are collected by the Ukrainian military and taken to the front line of the battlefields.

So far nearly 70 ambulances have been purchased and driven over in this way, stocked with medical supplies including dressings and also, particularly at Easter and Christmas, with presents for children in war affected areas of the country. Since 2022, between 10,000 and 20,000 lives of soldiers fighting to defend Ukraine have been saved by these ambulances and the supplies that they have been stocked with.

We aim to raise the £7,000 needed for an ambulance from this concert, and so all proceeds from ticket sales, programmes, and refreshments will be donated to achieve this.

With support from the Edith and Jack Griffiths Charitable Trust

 

The finer details…

Interval: 20 mins

Estimated finish: 9.30pm

Tickets
Unreserved:   £25 full price | £12.50 under-35s | £3 child/student

 

Fibonacci String Quartet – Friday 1 May

Fibonacci String Quartet
Luna De Mol and Kryštof Kohut violins
Elliot Kempton viola | Findlay Spence cello

 

arr. Fibonacci Quartet  Moravian Love Songs
Bartók  String Quartet No. 5, Sz 102
Schumann  String Quartet No. 3 in A major, Op. 41 No. 3

 

The Fibonacci Quartet is one of Europe’s leading young string quartets. They have recently taken prizes at the Royal Over-Seas League Competition and the Cavatina Chamber Music Competition at Wigmore Hall, and are quickly establishing a reputation as compelling performers of a wide variety of repertoire.

The Quartet blew us away on their first visit to Leamington with their magical performance of Bartók’s Fourth Quartet, and we simply had to invite them back to give us more at the earliest opportunity! This, partnered with Schumann’s brilliant Quartet No. 3 and a graceful nod to Leamington Music’s speciality in Czech music, they will get the Festival off to a very fine start indeed.

 

The finer details…

Interval: 20 mins

Estimated finish: 9.30pm

Tickets:
Centre section: £28 full price | £3 child/student
Side sections: £18 full price | £9 under-35s | £3 child/student

Dudok Quartet & Pieter Wispelwey (cello) – Friday 20 March

Dudok String Quartet

Judith Van Driel & Marleen Wester violins
Marie-Louise de Jong viola, David Faber cello

and Pieter Wispelwey cello

Rameau  Entrée de Polymnie from Les Boréades

Dowland    Lachrimae or Seven Tears

Mozart   String Quartet No. 21 in D major, K575 ‘Prussian’

Schubert   String Quintet in C major, D956

 

The Dudok Quartet from Amsterdam returns to Leamington after their well-received debut here in 2024. This time they come with the brilliant Dutch cellist, Pieter Wispelwey, whose distinguished career has spanned five continents, to bring us the greatest String Quintet of all time to finish the Winter Season with some fireworks.

Concert generously supported by Jolyon Hall

 

The finer details…

Interval: 20 mins

Estimated finish: 9.30pm

Tickets
Front Nave: £28 full price | £3 child/student
Middle Nave: £23 full price | £11.50 under-35s | £3 child/student
Rear Nave & Sides: £18 full price | £9 under-35s | £3 child/student

Henschel Quartet – Friday 13 February

Henschel Quartet

Christoph Henschel and Hannah Perowne violins
Monika Henschel viola, Mathias Beyer-Karlshøj cello

Haydn    String Quartet, Op. 76 No. 1 in G major
Freda Swain   String Quartet No. 1 in E minor ‘Norfolk’
Mendelssohn   String Quartet No. 6 in F minor, Op. 80

 

The Henschel Quartet from Germany returns for its eleventh visit since first playing in Leamington in February 2000, the last time opening the 2018/19 Winter Season. For this concert, the Quartet sandwiches two works we know and love with a new one for many of us: the First Quartet of Freda Swain (written in 1924), whose oeuvre is currently being rediscovered and who should undoubtedly have been recognised as one of the most prominent composers of her time.

Concert generously supported by Diane Holt

 

The finer details…

Interval: 20 mins

Estimated finish: 9.30pm

Tickets
Front Nave: £28 full price | £3 child/student
Middle Nave: £23 full price | £11.50 under-35s | £3 child/student
Rear Nave & Sides: £18 full price | £9 under-35s | £3 child/student