Fitzwilliam String Quartet

The Fitzwilliam Quartet first drew international acclaim because of its performances and recordings from the 15 string quartets of Shostakovich. Having fulfilled the composer in his last years, the Fitzwilliam players became instrumental in attaining money for the Shostakovich quartets, getting the first ever to record them full (in a string originally released on L’oiseau-Lyre LPs 1975-1979) and reissued down the road Decca CDs. However the Fitzwilliam Quartet provides barely limited itself to Shostakovich or early 20th hundred years fare, as its repertory provides encompassed functions by J.S. Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, and a spate of United kingdom composers which includes Vaughan Williams, Delius, Warlock, Finzi, and Bliss. The Fitzwilliam Quartet’s recordings can be found mainly on Decca and Linn Information. The Fitzwilliam Quartet was shaped in 1968 by four Cambridge College or university learners: Christopher Rowland and Jonathan Sparey (violins), Alan George (viola), and Ioan Davies (cello). The four had been mentored by founder/violinist in the Griller Quartet, Sidney Griller (Royal Academy of Music), who was simply also instrumental in shaping the Alberni, Coull, Lindsay, and Medici quartets. There were several changes over time in the Fitzwilliam: the 2011 employees contains both Sparey and George, Lucy Russell (initial violin), becoming involved 1988 and getting head in 1995; and Heather Tuach (cello), becoming involved 2008, changing Andrew Skidmore. The Fitzwilliam Quartet provided their initial concert in 1969, and started their professional profession upon session as quartet-in-residence at York College or university in 1971. The next season the Fitzwilliam provided the traditional western premiere from the 1970 Shostakovich Thirteenth Quartet, from parts delivered with the composer. That same season the group fulfilled Shostakovich, and he entrusted the ensemble to provide the traditional western premieres of his last two quartets. The Fitzwilliam Quartet offered as quartet-in-residence at Warwick College or university from 1974-1977, and once again at York College or university from 1977-1986. With the mid-’80s it had been internationally acclaimed, and frequently toured European countries, the U.S., and somewhere else throughout the world. In 2000 the ensemble started documenting for Linn Information, its first work becoming Haydn’s Seven Last Terms. The Fitzwilliam’s concert trips in the brand new hundred years possess included South Africa (2001), Russia (2004), and U.S., Spain, and Switzerland (2006). In 2009-2010 it offered as artist-in-residence in the Ryedale Music Event (North Yorkshire, Britain) with the Event de l’Abbaye du Pin (France). Among its recordings may be the 2007 Linn Information Compact disc On Wenlock Advantage, with tenor Wayne Gilchrist and additional instrumentalists.