Photo by Peter Searle
After six and a half months without concerts the FSQ finally resumed activity on Oct 2nd at Benslow Music, Hitchin: our annual weekend course there – under carefully and strictly controlled conditions – was preceded on the Friday evening by a 75 minute concert for all the participants – which was immediately repeated for members of the public. Just over a week later we did another concert! This was a particularly special event, in Warwick’s The Dream Factory (home of Playbox Theatre), celebrating the eightieth birthday of Leamington Music’s Festival Director, Richard Phillips, MBE. Audience numbers were dictated by restrictions for Covid 19, ensuring the safety of everybody involved; but with a waiting list growing by the day it was decided that this programme should also be repeated: on Tuesday Oct 20. Once again, the audience was offered a glass of champagne on arrival. The all-Viennese programme consisted of the delectable Italian Serenade by Hugo Wolf, Schubert’s Quartet in A minor, D804 (including its famous Andante from Rosamunde), finishing with Haydn’s glorious D major Quartet Op.76 No 5, with its visionary Largo in F# major and a riotous, celebratory finale in true folk tradition. Richard Phillips himself adds: “It is wonderful to celebrate an important birthday with a concert of favourite composers, played by a Quartet with which I have been associated since 1971. I first came across the Fitzwilliam when they started their Residency at York University that year; and then from 1974 to 77, when it was in residence at Warwick University, I met up with members when visiting my Warwick home from my job as Music Officer of Yorkshire Arts Association. My belief that string quartets have the best repertoire of all was inspired by the Fitzwilliam, and then the Lindsays (with whom I was involved when they went to Sheffield University). In 1984 I programmed the Fitzwilliam for the first time in the Warwick Arts Week and since then I have put on with Warwick Arts Society and then Leamington Music over 400 concerts in our towns with string quartets.”
Richard has indeed devoted a lifetime to promoting the highest quality music making, first in Yorkshire, then in the West Midlands – and he has not finished yet! It would not be inaccurate to claim that it was he who set the Fitzwilliam on course for its 52 years (so far!) of quartet playing: truly one of our dearest and most loyal Friends.
Leamington Music is financially supported by Warwick District Council and Leamington Town Council, plus generous individuals, trusts, sponsors and the Friends of Leamington Music.
Amazing to be back playing again - but who knows for how long..... However, you can always listen to our recordings - which can still be ordered directly from the Quartet by emailing fitzwilliam.quartet@ntlworld.com.
Richard has indeed devoted a lifetime to promoting the highest quality music making, first in Yorkshire, then in the West Midlands – and he has not finished yet! It would not be inaccurate to claim that it was he who set the Fitzwilliam on course for its 52 years (so far!) of quartet playing: truly one of our dearest and most loyal Friends.
Leamington Music is financially supported by Warwick District Council and Leamington Town Council, plus generous individuals, trusts, sponsors and the Friends of Leamington Music.
Amazing to be back playing again - but who knows for how long..... However, you can always listen to our recordings - which can still be ordered directly from the Quartet by emailing fitzwilliam.quartet@ntlworld.com.
New ReleaseS
Schubert A minor and D minor String Quartets - a Divine Art CD released on Valentine's Day!
Fitzwilliam String Quartet at 50!
The founding members of the FSQ first sat down together in the Gaskoin Room at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, in October 1968 – as undergraduates during their inaugural term. Their first concert appearance took place in Churchill College the following March, ahead of their public debut at the Sheffield Arts Festival in June – making the Fitzwilliam now one of the longest established string quartets in the world, and possibly unique in having reached the milestone with an original player still on board! By way of marking the half-centuryit was felt that, rather than make a splash at a big London or New York venue, it seemed more appropriate to give something back to those British musical organisations who have supported the quartet over so many years: thereby travelling the length and breadth of the country, re-visiting as many favourite venues in 16 months as can be accommodated; also teaming up with past quintet guests; championing composers who have written for the Fitzwilliam; and broadening horizons via the FSQ’s long-time Shostakovich association, presenting his music with readings by Peter Florence, or live painting by Maryleen Schiltkamp and Dora Williams. An extensive diary of events is now nearing completion, inaugurated at the beginning of September 2018, but quickly needing to overflow into Spring 2020.
There have also been new CD recordings issued: of quartets by Schubert on gut strings (Death & the Maiden and the A minor – with the C minor and G major already put down early in 2020), and a re-visiting (after 43 years!) of the three quartets (Nos.13, 14, 15) which Dmitri Shostakovich himself sent to them towards the end of his life. The FSQ also helps celebrate other significant anniversaries, not least leader Lucy Russell’s own 30 years in the group; but also their eponymous Cambridge college, Jeffrey Skidmore’s Ex Cathedra, Leamington Music Festival, Fishguard Festival, Martin Randall Travel, Opera North’s Howard Assembly Room, and Gloucester Music Society.
There have also been new CD recordings issued: of quartets by Schubert on gut strings (Death & the Maiden and the A minor – with the C minor and G major already put down early in 2020), and a re-visiting (after 43 years!) of the three quartets (Nos.13, 14, 15) which Dmitri Shostakovich himself sent to them towards the end of his life. The FSQ also helps celebrate other significant anniversaries, not least leader Lucy Russell’s own 30 years in the group; but also their eponymous Cambridge college, Jeffrey Skidmore’s Ex Cathedra, Leamington Music Festival, Fishguard Festival, Martin Randall Travel, Opera North’s Howard Assembly Room, and Gloucester Music Society.
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Fitzwilliam String Quartet appointed quartet-in-residence at University of St Andrews Music Centre
OctobeR 2018
As part of the residency the quartet will coach student string players and scholarship groups, and mentor advanced players looking to enter postgraduate study or the music profession. The group will also participate in special projects with university groups such as Byre Opera and the Strings in Spring course. Michael Downes, the University’s director of music, said: ‘Since the Fitzwilliam first visited St Andrews in 2010, they have made an enormous impact on musical life in the university and the town. As one of the few leading British quartets to perform regularly on both modern and period instruments, their incredibly versatile musicianship has been displayed in projects as diverse as productions of Baroque opera, CD recordings with St Salvator’s Chapel Choir, and premiering contemporary works with principals from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.’
