The Endellion String Quartet
Quartet in Residence
Tuesdays 26 April, 24 May, 14 June, 12 July 2016
The Venue
Leeds College of Music, Quarry Hill
We are delighted to welcome you to our new series at The Venue. We are savouring an Eastern European flavour this year. Tchaikovsky is possibly the most approachable and popular of all composers. His best known works are his wonderful ballets and symphonies, but he also wrote terrific chamber music and the Endellion has always loved it and recorded it all a long time ago. In our first programme we pair him with his beloved Mozart (his well-known Rococo Variations are a homage to the elegance and simplicity that he so valued in Mozart). Dvorˇák’s American Quartet was composed extraordinarily rapidly while Dvorˇák was very homesick for his native Bohemia during a stay in the USA. It is full of gorgeous Slavic melodies and Dvorˇák's distinctive rhythmic fingerprints are all-pervasive. Tchaikovsky bares his Russian soul in the Third Quartet, as Shostakovich bares his in his highly autobiographical Eighth Quartet. There is an interesting link between the two: Shostakovich was tormented by the dark shadow of Stalin and when Stalin died and his body lay in state, the Borodin Quartet was required to play, again and again in a loop for many hours, the funeral march movement from Tchaikovsky’s Third Quartet. Both pieces never fail to make a profound impression on their listeners. Our last Eastern piece is Bartók’s exciting Third Quartet, a veritable black hole of tightly compressed energy that contrasts with several melancholy folk-inspired melodies. In addition, we are playing Mendelssohn’s very moving teenage masterpiece Op 13, Brahms’ equally masterly Second Quartet and four of the greatest Haydn quartets, including the last two complete ones he wrote. In a final nod towards the East, Haydn’s Op 54 No 2 is a brilliant, inventive and joyful quartet that also has an extraordinary slow movement with a strong gypsy character, with its highly improvised melismatic ornamentation in the first violin, weaving around a beautiful and soulful melody. David Waterman Endellion String Quartet
Join the Endellion String Qu Spring/Summer for its popu Formed in 1979, the Endellion String Quartet is renowned as one of the finest quartets in the world. Over the years, its schedule has included regular tours of North and South America and concerts in Australasia, the Far East, the Middle East, South Africa and every West European country. Everywhere, the Endellion String Quartet ‘sets the audience ablaze’ (Daily Telegraph) and ‘captivates concertgoers with a remarkable rapport, playing to each other with a sense almost of discovery, communicating to the audience on a level of unusual intimacy’ (Guardian). In Britain, the Endellion String Quartet has appeared at nearly all of the major series and festivals and is regularly broadcast on BBC radio and television. In 1996 the quartet was winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Best Chamber Ensemble. Its various recordings have been named Chamber Music Recording of the Year by both the Daily Telegraph and The Guardian, Radio 3’s Critics’ Choice and Editor’s Choice at the Gramophone Awards. The Endellion String Quartet has been Quartet in Residence at Cambridge University since 1992 and has undertaken three short-term residencies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the USA. Since 2001 it has been Associate Quartet of the Royal Northern College of Music and in 2003 began its Residency here at The Venue, Leeds.
uartet at The Venue this pular annual residency. Andrew Watkinson violin
Ralph de Souza violin
Garfield Jackson viola
David Waterman cello
The Endellion is arguably the finest quartet in Britain, playing with poise, true intonation, excellent balance and a beautiful tone. In music of the Viennese Classical composers it has few challengers but it has won praise in a wide repertory, its Beethoven and Bartók cycles being especially admired
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2000)
Tuesday 26 April, 7.30pm
Haydn
Quartet Op 76, No 2 (Fifths)
Mozart
Quartet K464 (The Drum)
Tchaikovsky Quartet No 2
Tuesday 24 May, 7.30pm
Haydn
Quartet Op 77, No 1
Dvorˇák
Quartet Op 96 (American)
Mendelssohn Quartet Op 13
Tuesday 14 June, 7.30pm
Haydn
Quartet Op 54, No 2
Shostakovich Quartet No 8
Tchaikovsky Quartet No 3
Tuesday 12 July, 7.30pm
Haydn
Quartet Op 77, No 2
Bartók
Quartet No 3
Brahms
Quartet No 2
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Booking information
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Please note a booking fee of £1 per ticket will apply. We regret that subscriptions cannot be booked online.
By telephone 0113 376 0318
The Booking Line is open from 10am – 6pm, Monday – Saturday.
In person or by post City Centre Box Office
The Carriageworks, The Electric Press, 3 Millennium Square, Leeds, LS2 3AD The Box Office is open to personal callers from 10am – 6pm, Monday – Saturday. Cheques should be made payable to Leeds City Council. Please enclose a stamped addressed envelope if you would like your tickets to be sent to you.
Booking opens
Access There is full wheelchair access to The Venue and disabled toilet facilities are available. Wheelchair users and companions may obtain two tickets for the price of one – details from the Box Office on 0113 376 0318. Support dogs are welcome. Please let us know in advance of any special access requirements you may have. The Venue is equipped with an infra red audio system.
This brochure is available in alternative formats – please call us on 0113 247 8336 or email music@leeds.gov.uk for more details.
Talk to us! If you have any questions or comments about Leeds International Concert Season, please call us on 0113 247 8336 or email us at music@leeds.gov.uk. For more information on the music and performers visit www.leedsconcertseason.com. Whilst every effort is made to avoid programme changes, we reserve the right to change artists and programmes without notice if unavoidable.
8 February: Priority booking period for existing subscribers to the Endellion String Quartet series. Please note that this is a separate subscription from the Evening Chamber (The Sonata) series. Requests for seat changes by existing subscribers will be processed on a first-come-first-served basis from 15 – 19 February and can be returned to the Box Office any time from 8 February. 22 February: For new subscribers 29 February: General booking opens
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