Quote Mark Welcome to our 2022-2023 season

Concert Details

May

Overview

Solem Quartet with Maksim Śtśura

Haydn Quartet No. 1 in E-flat, Op. 20
Mendelssohn Quartet No. 6 in F minor, Op. 80
Frank Bridge Piano Quintet, H.106

Amy Tress violin
Catherine Landen violin
Alistair Vennart viola
Stephanie Tress cello
Maksim Śtśura piano

A collaborative concert between the LCMS and the distinguished Park Lane Group – founded more than 60 years ago to support and promote highly talented young artists at the beginning of their professional careers – presenting the award-winning Solem Quartet and the Estonian pianist Maksim Śtśura. An early string quartet by Haydn, the first of his ground-breaking Op. 20 set, is followed by Mendelssohn’s passionate and stormy quartet in F minor, and their programme is completed with Frank Bridge’s beautiful Piano Quintet from 1912.

Winners of the 2014 Royal Overseas League Ensemble Competition, the Solem String Quartet were brought together in 2011 by their studies at the University of Manchester, where they take their name from the University motto ‘arduus ad solem’ meaning ‘striving towards the sun’.

The Solem Quartet enjoy a busy concert schedule performing at venues across the UK including Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Holywell Music Room and the Edinburgh Festival as well as performing internationally in several European countries. In 2015 they were on the concert platform over 40 times.

The Quartet have benefited from inspirational teaching from a number of the world’s greatest chamber musicians including Gábor Takács-Nagy, Miguel da Silva, Peter Cropper, Thomas Riebl and Hatto Beyerle. They have attended the European Chamber Music Academy and the National Youth String Quartet Academy as well as courses with the Chilingirian, Dante and Maggini Quartets, and in January 2015 they undertook a two-week chamber music residency with Simon Rowland-Jones in Aldeburgh. The quartet were delighted to have been selected for the prestigious ChamberStudio Mentorship 2014/2015, which allowed them to study intensively with the internationally renowned cellist Christoph Richter here at Kings Place.

Information

6.30pm Sunday, 14th May 2017

Website

Concert
Gallery

Events
Gallery

FREE // Arcos Quartet: Pre-concert Foyer performance - Sunday 14th May, 5:45pm

Beethoven String Quartet No.11 in F minor, Op. 95 Serioso
Webern Langsamer Satz

Arcos Quartet
Laia Braun violin
David Lopez violin
Ana Teresa Alves viola
Kristiana Ignatjeva cello

The main relation to the evening concert is between Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 11, Op. 95 Serioso and Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No. 6 in F minor, Op. 80. They are both written in the same key – F minor – and they share the same mood of extreme unhappiness caused by some sort of suffering: mental or physical. The most similar movement of both works is the Scherzo. Mendelssohn’s Scherzo has a very present sense of pain and is very comparable to the musical writing in Beethoven’s Serioso-Scherzo and to its constant sense of terror.

The quartet will also play something short that will fit well as a sort of encore – Webern’s Langsmer Satz. Webern was part of the Second Viennese School which developed the 20th century serial techniques – the ‘First’ School being Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. This piece fits the dramatic and romantic character of the concert very well, being described by some as ‘Tristan and Isolde in 11 minutes’.

The Arcos Quartet is a young string quartet based in London. Formed in 2014 the quartet has regular coaching with the Head of Strings at the Royal College of Music, Mark Messenger and has participated in masterclasses with musicians such as András Keller, Christoph Richter, Jan Talich and Pavel Fischer. As First Prize winners of the annual RCM String Quartet Music Competition in 2015, the Arcos Quartet has been praised in recent concerts in Europe including at the Chipping Camden Music Festival, the Manchester String Quartet weekend, the Lucca Classica Festival in Italy and the Ipswich School Festival of Music. In 2015, the Arcos Quartet was awarded the Boconnoc Music Award and travelled to Cornwall for a quartet residency. The four members hail from different countries in Europe and are recipients of many scholarships, awards and numerous prizes in international competitions.