Stradivari Quartet

Bartek Niziol, violin
Xiaoming Wang, violin
David Greenlees, viola
Maja Weber, cello

The Swiss Stradivari Foundation Habisreutinger lent four exceptional Stradivari instruments to four outstanding young musicians from England, Austria, Poland, and Switzerland, who formed the Stradivari Quartet, based in Zurich. After a stunning debut concert the Quartet was celebrated with standing ovations in its hometown as well as on its debut tour to Munich, Berlin, Prague, Budapest, Eisenstadt, Salzburg, and Vienna. In autumn 2008 the Stradivari recorded a double CD of Haydn’s Opus 50 string quartets, which will be released by Sony BMG in late 2009 for the Haydn anniversary. In 2009 the Quartet will perform in the United States, China, and the United Kingdom, among other places, and will visit the United States, Great Britain, and Japan on further debut tours. The Budapester Zeitung titled the Quartet’s debut as a moment “when stars are born,” and praised the “incomparable warm sound” and the “fabulous” interplay.

Bartek Niziol, violin

Born in 1974 in Poland, Mr. Niziol began his musical education at the age of four.  At 17 he won 1st prize in the international Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition.  Five more first prizes in international competitions followed, including the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud in Paris and the Eurovision in Brussels.  Since 2003 he has been leader of the Zurich Opera Orchestra.  

AUREA
The “golden violin” comes from Stradivari’s ‘Golden Period’ (ca. 1700-1720).  During this period the master’s genius reached maturity and he made his best instruments, including the Aurea, which was made in 1715.  Presumably Stradivari proportioned this violin according to the “Golden Section” (sectio aurea), which is the name given to the special mathematical relationship according to which the smaller part relates to the larger part as the larger part relates to the whole.  It was according to this geometric model that he calculated the optimum position of the F-holes to produce the best sound.  The result was this slim, maneuverable violin which is easy to play and shines with an incomparable fullness of tone.  


Xiaoming Wang, violin

Born in China in 1982, Xiaoming Wang started playing the violin at the age of 4. While still at school, he continued his musical development and education under Prof. Xu Lu at the Central Conservatory in Beijing, where he studied violin performance for ten years. His musical talent was promoted by the Herbert von Karajan Center, and flourished under the tutelage of Gerhard Schulz in Vienna. He competed with great success many competitions, and won first prizes and the special award at the Leopold Mozart Competition. He has been concertmaster of the UBS Verbier Orchestra and the UBS Chamber Orchestra, and in 2008 he became the second concertmaster of the Zurich Opera Orchestra.

KING GEORGE
This valuable violin dates from 1710 and is named after its owner King George III.  In 1800 he gave it to a Scottish officer, whose motto was “Not without my Stradivari,” for he worshipped this instrument.  A cavalryman under Wellington, he fell in the Battle of Waterloo on 18 July 1815, but the violin survived undamaged in his horse’s saddle bags.  Its next owner was Bernhard Molique, a pupil of Spohr, followed by his student Baron von Dreyfuss and then the Berlin violin expert August Riechers.  The German-American dealer Emil Hermann bought it from Professor Meyer and then sold it to a buyer in Tokyo.  Before the outbreak of World War II the King George violin found its way back to Berlin, by a route which has not been documented.


David Greenlees, viola

Born in 1965 in England, Mr. Greenlees first made a name for himself as a nine-year-old boy soprano soloist with St. John's College Choir Cambridge.  He studied violin and viola with David Takeno at the Guildhall School of Music in London, winning prizes at viola and chamber music competitions. From 1993 to 2003 he was solo viola with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and since 2003 has been deputy solo viola with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra.  

GIBSON
It was surely with a trembling hand that in 1734 Antonio Stradivari – already ninety years old – gave what was presumably his last contralto viola (which was smaller than his tenor violas) a craftsmanlike and artistic vitality which made it an instrument of unusual tone colour and beauty. This is perhaps the most priceless of the instruments of his “Golden Period.”  The Gibson demonstrates an absolute perfection, and is in excellent condition today, more than 250 years after it was made.  It is the only viola in which the back of the sound box was “slab cut” (tangential cut).  Most violins and violas were “quarter sawn” (radial cut).  This is how things have remained until the present day.  This jewel of an instrument is named after the Englishman George Alfred Gibson (1849-1924), who was Professor of Violin at the Royal Academy and a famous soloist, and who was also the viola player in the world-famous “Joachim Quartet.”


Maja Weber, cello

Born in 1974 in Switzerland, Ms. Weber began playing the cello at the age of four, when the instrument was bigger than she was.  At a very young age she played in the family quartet and in the “Ars Amata Zürich”, then formed the “Amar Quartet” with her sister, winning 1st prize at Bubenreuth, 2nd prize at Geneva and Graz, and the Millennium Award in London.  

BONAMY DOBREE - SUGGIA
The English scholar Bonamy Dobree owned this 1717 Stradivari cello.  The moving story of this valuable instrument actually begins with the mysterious, diva-like Portuguese cellist Guilhermina Suggia (1885-1950), who when playing her favourite cello combined technical perfection and interpretative feeling, enchanting her public with her playing as well as her warmth and depth of tone.  Outwardly extravagant and lively, inwardly intelligent and warm-hearted, Suggia lived many lives: in Paris as the pupil and lover of Pablo Casals, in London as a “Grande Dame” and cosmopolitan figure, in Portugal as the yearning woman seeking her homeland. After Suggia’s death the cello was sold and the proceeds used to provide grants for students at the Royal Academy of Music.