Winners of the 2014 Osaka International Chamber Music Competition, the 2012 Wigmore Hall London International String Quartet Competition, the 2011 Almere International Chamber Music Competition in 2011 and the International Chamber Music Competition Hamburg in 2009, the Arcadia Quartet is rapidly establishing itself as one of the most exciting string quartets of their generation.
Formed in 2006 while students at the Gheorghe Dima Music Academy in Romania, the quartet has performed across the world including performances at the Budapest Spring Festival, George Enescu Festival in Heidelberg, Cite International des Arts in Paris, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Pollack Hall in Montreal, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Wigmore Hall, Q’arto Mondi Festival in Poland, Salle Gaveau in Paris, Tel-Aviv, Portugal, Mecklenburg Vorpommern Festival, Kammermusiktage Mettlach, Zeist Music Days Festival in The Netherlands, throughout the United Kingdom and and in Beijing. The 14/15 season included a 12 concert tour of Japan and concerts throughout Europe including at the Wigmore Hall, Vienna Musikverein, Aldeburgh Festival, Berlin Konzerthaus, North Norfolk Music Festival, Enescu Festival and in Madrid. The Quartet made their BBC Radio 3 debut with a broadcast concert from the Wigmore Hall in March 2015, and in April 2015 were invited to become the prestigious ‘Tinerimea Română’ National Art Centre of Bucharest’s Quartet-in-Residence, playing six concerts a year broadcast by the Romanian Broadcasting Company.
The Quartet returned to the United Kingdom in the 15/16 season to give a 14 concert tour of Scotland and the United Kingdom and perform extensively throughout Europe including performances at the Musikfestival Rheinhessen, Grafenegg Festival, Silver Lyre Festival in Saint Petersburg, Euroarts Festival in Prague and further concerts in Germany, Transylvania and Romania. In 2017 the Quartet makes debuts in Venice, Bologna and Istanbul alongside further concerts in Germany, Romania, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom including the Wigmore Hall and the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester where their concert was recorded by BBC Radio 3.
The Arcadia Quartet’s debut disc of works by Mendelssohn and Brahms was released by Fontenay Classics in 2009 attracting critical acclaim. Ensemble Magazin wrote of “their intimate performance”, “their exceptional sonority” and their “expressive power which leaves a deep impression on the listener”. Their recording of Janacek Quartet No.1 and No.2 was released on the Orchid Classics label in October 2013. The Sunday Times wrote of of ‘a beauty that pierces the heart’ that ‘both works are played with searing intensity by the fine young Romanian quartet’. The Financial Times wrote that the quartet ‘create a mood of edgy expressionism that, in its violent swings and chromatic stresses, is shockingly direct and dramatic, like an opera – or a nightmare’, that ‘the result is an assault on the senses, piercing the heart of this unsettling music.’
The quartet are delighted to announce that they recorded the complete Bartok quartets for Chandos Records, for release in October 2018.
WHEN? Friday, 31 august, 19:30 hours
WHERE? Apollo 111
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