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We are proud to share with you our own top-ten list of the artists from our roster who have been singled out for this special recognition. Click here to view our list.
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The Stradivari Quartet will be touring in the United States once again in February 2012 and April 2013.
This June, the Pacifica Quartet will be among the first international ensembles to return to Japan as the country slowly regains normalcy after the recent tsunami disaster. As part of a multi-city tour, the Pacifica will present the complete Beethoven string quartets in one weekend at Tokyo's famed Suntory Hall, providing Japanese concertgoers the unprecedented opportunity to hear the complete cycle in such a condensed period.
Join us in wishing the Pacifica bon voyage!
Recently added to our roster, the Hermitage Piano Trio is made up of three leading Russian soloists: violinist Misha Keylin, who has received tremendous acclaim for his Naxos recording project of the complete works by Vieuxtemps for violin and orchestra; cellist Sergey Antonov, who was the gold medalist at the most recent Tchaikovsky Competition; and pianist Maxim Mogilevsky, who performed just last year with Valery Gergiev and the New York Philharmonic.
Watch a live performance video here.
Over the past season, virtuoso violinist Rachel Barton Pine has been filmed at a number of her performances around the world resulting in a DVD that now stands as a testament to a truly remarkable artist at the peak of her powers. The disc contains live performance footage from three different continents filmed in just the past six months: the Tchaikovsky concerto from Moscow, the Barber concerto from Brazil, and Brahms and Ravel sonatas from Montreal, among other things.
Contact us about receiving a copy and see for yourself why we consider these performances the most exciting and imaginative violin playing from the past forty years.
From Mel Kaplan’s blog, Music From The Inside:
I’ve had the immeasurable pleasure of representing the Ying Quartet since its inception nearly twenty years ago. The group’s wonderful imagination and impeccable taste is reflected in their programming ability, incorporating and combining traditional repertoire and commissioning at least two new works each year as part of the LifeMusic project. Last night at Carnegie Hall, I experienced not just the best performance I’ve ever heard by the Ying Quartet, but also a real musical transformation.
Read the full review here.
On Sunday, October 3rd, we received a call from the presenter in Calgary. The ensemble that was to perform that evening had just contacted him to cancel their Sunday and Monday concerts due to an emergency. The presenter was wondering if we had an artist who could fly immediately to Calgary and play a concert that evening and the next. We had eight hours until curtain.
To everyone’s delight—especially the audience in Calgary—the Borealis String Quartet
was able to save the day, catching ferries and multiple flights.
Unflustered, they performed sensationally, as the review, entitled
“Vancouver quartet shows star qualities in rush performance,” describes (click here to view).
"Not long ago, the Pacifica Quartet was named quartet-in-residence at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The significance of this goes beyond the prestige of the appointment: The legendary Guarneri String Quartet occupied that post for more than four decades. Ultra-talented string quartets abound these days in a golden age for the genre, but the Pacifica Quartet is perhaps most worthy of carrying that mantle today."
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Chicago Tribune
New York Times
Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Classical Review
New York Times
Music Review | American String Quartet
A 1988 Commission, Revisited on an Anniversary
At the first installment, at the Manhattan School on Sunday afternoon, works by Haydn and Ravel framed a piece the group had commissioned from George Tsontakis in the late 1980s, and the concert was so beautifully played and so rich in interpretive nuance that a listener who had not been especially impressed with this quartet in the past left the hall feeling that the two remaining concerts should not be missed.
We consider it an honor and a privilege to announce that we have taken on the worldwide representation of the remarkable violinist Rachel Barton Pine.
Learn more here: www.rachelbartonpine.com
Ludwig and Amadeus, Meeting for a Nightcap
The New York Times
By ANTHONY TOMMASINI
Published: August 19, 2010
The members of any string quartet will tell you that it takes a great deal of disciplined work to achieve technical finesse and control. The four young Parisian men who form the Ebčne Quartet have certainly worked hard, which partly explains why they are increasingly viewed as one of the standout quartets of the new generation.
The discipline of their music making came through on Wednesday at the Kaplan Penthouse, part of the Mostly Mozart Festival’s Little Night Music series of 60-minute programs starting at 10:30. Yet even more impressive was the spontaneity, the almost freewheeling vitality, in their performances of Mozart’s early Divertimento in D (K. 136) and Beethoven’s late String Quartet in C sharp minor (Op. 131).
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A Night of Awe at Ozawa Hall
BERKSHIRE EAGLE
By Andrew L. Pincus, Special to the Eagle
August 21, 2010
LENOX -- Sometimes you know from the first notes that you're in the presence of extraordinary musicians. It's like discovering an enchanted land.
The extraordinary happened Thursday night when the Ébčne Quartet, from France, made its Tanglewood debut. The group wasn't exactly unheralded. Since its American debut last year, it has been receiving enthusiastic reviews over here to go with the ones in Europe. It has also attracted attention in its persona as "the other Ébčne," playing improvisatory jazz, pop and film soundtracks.
None of this advance notice was preparation for the refinement of technique and depth of intellectual and emotional penetration the players brought to a program of Mozart, Bartok and Beethoven. Every decision -- every choice of tempo, phrase and nuance -- seemed exactly right, even when it departed from tradition. Or, let's say, especially when it departed from tradition.
During the summer of 2009, the Pacifica Quartet performed all of Mendelssohn’s string quartets for Music@Menlo. This cycle followed a critically acclaimed recording of all of those works for Cedille, the Chicago-based independent record label.
It is now possible to watch four select movements from the Menlo performances:
Visit http://www.medici.tv/#/movie/14335/ to view this remarkable performance.
