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The First Greenwich International String Quartet Festival:  at Trinity College of Music 17-19 April 2009 (BK)

Artistic Director: David Kenedy
Head of String Faculty: Nic Pendlebury
Festival Patron: Martin Lovett OBE, of the Amadeus Quartet

One weekend. 11 concerts. 9 world-renowned string quartets. 14 masterclasses. Music written from 1783 - 2009. Archive film showings. Competitions. Talks. Improvisation and experimental music. Historic & beautiful surroundings.

Trinity College of Music (TCM) is delighted to present a 3 day festival devoted to the String Quartet. The first Greenwich International String Quartet Festival will take place 17-19 April 2009 and will be a highly concentrated long weekend of events of major international significance including concerts, masterclasses, talks, improvisation, experimental music, installations, competitions and archive film shows all housed in the historic and beautiful surroundings of Trinity College of Music at the Old Royal Naval College.

The Festival is a major celebration of the remarkable depth and versatility of the String Quartet and of the College’s own chamber music programme. There will be performances of many of the iconic and lesser known works in this genre performed by some of the world’s leading exponents, many of whom have a close Trinity connection, including the Endellion, Brodsky, Smith, Wihan and Allegri String Quartets.

To quote Artistic Director, David Kenedy:

“Like so many ideas, it started over a drink in the pub. Nic Pendlebury and I were discussing the possibility of putting on a String Quartet Festival based on the three main periods of String Quartet history, Classical, Romantic and Modern, with associated masterclasses. We have kept this model as the backbone of the Festival but, as you can see, it has grown into something much bigger, a celebration of the wonderful richness and variety of this uniquely full yet transparent medium that, for so many of our greatest composers, became the ideal vehicle to convey their most intimate and heartfelt thoughts and feelings, the very essence of their musical souls. We have tried to reflect this in a Festival that is unsurpassed in the breadth of its vision and the quality of its performances. We are delighted that we are able to open our doors and invite you to share this wonderful music with us in the beautiful surroundings of our College, where so many of the musicians taking part had or have their artistic home.”

The core of the Festival will be the three evening concerts in the beautiful Royal Naval College Chapel which will focus on the three principal periods of quartet history. The world-famous Endellion Quartet will perform works by Haydn, Mozart, Schubert and Beethoven illustrating the Classical period. The Wihan Quartet from the Czech Republic, Quartet in Residence at Trinity and winners of the London International String Quartet Competition, will play major works from the Romantic repertoire whilst the ground breaking Smith Quartet (whose viola player, Nic Pendlebury, is Head of Strings at Trinity) will play works from the modern period, including Steve Reich’s minimalist haunting masterpiece “Different Trains” and George Crumb’s “Black Angels”, a work which sees the performers playing crystal glasses, gongs and speaking in different languages.

Other internationally renowned quartets will represent specific aspects of the genre including the Carducci Quartet (Trinity’s second Quartet in Residence, former holders of the Bulldog and Richard Carne Junior Fellowships), fresh from winning the Concert Artists’ Guild Competition in New York, who will perform works from the French Repertoire. The Badke Quartet, also former holders of the Bulldog Junior Fellowship and recent winners of the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, will play the quintessentially Hungarian music of Bartók, while the Allegri Quartet, established in 1953 and one of the longest established and most respected British Chamber ensembles, whose first violinist, Ofer Falk, is on the staff at Trinity, will perform the Russian music of Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky.

The Brodowski Quartet, current holders of the Richard Carne Fellowship and recent winners of the Royal Overseas League Chamber Music Competition, will play English and American works, (including the World Premiere of a new work by the young British composer, William Marshall) and, in a shared concert with the Carducci Quartet, will perform Mendelssohn’s ever-popular Octet.

To represent the younger generation, there will be a concert performed by students at Chetham’s School of Music (joined in Steve Reich’s Triple Quartet by the Vardanyan Quartet, current Bulldog Junior Fellows), and participation from Junior Trinity.

To explore the less conventional side of modern string quartet writing, the Brodsky Quartet (who have collaborated with such rock and pop figures as Björk, Elvis Costello and Paul McCartney) and the Elysian Quartet (former Bulldog Junior Fellows, now specializing in contemporary experimental and improvised music) will perform in two late concerts with cabaret seating in the newly renovated, vaulted Undercroft, beneath the Chapel. The Brodsky Quartet will be joined by clarinettist Joan Enric Lluna in a performance of Paul Barker’s “In Memoriam: For Those Who Fall in Times of War”, inspired by the deaths one by one of three members of the Sarajevo String Quartet during the war in Bosnia.

As well as concerts, the Endellion, Wihan, Allegri and Smith Quartets will offer Masterclasses to student quartets from Trinity, Chetham’s, Junior Trinity and all other UK Conservatoires. There will also be two Competitions at the Festival: a String Quartet Composers’ Competition for TCM students (adjudicated by Joe Cutler and Robert Saxton) and an inter-collegiate Quartet Performance Competition (including a specially commissioned compulsory work by TCM professor Andrew Poppy), funded by the Cavatina Chamber Music Trust, and adjudicated by Martin Lovett, Adam Gatehouse and Pamela Majaro.

In addition to concerts tracing the entire history of the String Quartet, Masterclasses and Competitions, the Festival will feature contemporary interactive music installations as well as archive film footage of the great quartets of the past shown throughout the weekend.

The Greenwich International String Quartet Festival is expected to become a major regular event in London’s Classical Music Diary. As well as performances by internationally renowned string quartets, the weekend will buzz with students from UK Conservatoires attending a wealth of masterclasses and competitions, and mingling with music lovers and professionals. There is certainly something to satisfy and challenge all musical tastes.

Bill Kenny

For more information please see www.tcm.ac.uk/stringquartetfestival


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