Event information
Booking recommended
Doors open at 7.30pm
Programme
Haydn: String Quartet Op.20 No.4
Elgar: String Quartet Op.83
Schubert: String Quartet No.15, D887
About the Piatti Quartet
Prizewinners at the 2015 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition (formerly London), they have performed in all the major venues and festivals around the country as well as concerts throughout the world, with national broadcasts on BBC Radio, ABC (Australia), RTE (Ireland) and France Musique (France).
The Piattis continue to expand the string quartet repertoire, and are known for their work with leading British composers. Current commissions include new works by Mark Anthony-Turnage, Darren Bloom (Cheltenham Festival), Emily Howard (New Scientist Live), Freya Waley-Cohen and Jacques Cohen.
Previously the Quartet commissioned Joseph Phibbs’ String Quartet No.1 (2014) with support from the Britten Pears Foundation and Ralph Vaughan Williams Trust. A forthcoming disc for the Champs Hill label will feature this work alongside classics by Britten and Bridge. Other recently commissioned compositions include pieces from Richard Birchall (performed live on BBC Radio 3), and Fintan O’Hare.
The Quartet’s recordings have been released on the Linn Records and Champs Hill labels, including the Piatti’s lauded contribution to the complete string quartet works of Felix Mendelssohn (Champs Hill), which was BBC Music Magazine’s Critic’s Choice (September 2014). Most recently, the Quartet was featured on a jazz concept album in collaboration with saxophonist Justin Swadling, released in May 2016 by 33 Records. Critical acclaim for this recording has included a 4.5* review from Downbeat Magazine.
At the 2015 Wigmore Hall International (formerly the London International) String Quartet Competition, the Piatti Quartet won joint 2nd Prize as well as the St.Lawrence SQ prize and the Sidney Griller Award for the best performance of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s ‘Contusion’. The Piatti Quartet were the Richard Carne Junior Fellows in String Quartet at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance from 2014-16; previously they spent two years as Leverhulme Fellows at the Royal Academy of Music. The Quartet also works regularly with the CAVATINA Chamber Music Trust, helping to secure the future of chamber music by performing to young children and families in schools and venues throughout London.
Recent seasons have included debuts in Istanbul and Barcelona, a residency at the Academie du Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, tours of Scotland, Ireland, and the Netherlands, a CD recorded at the Jacqueline du Pre Music Building, Oxford, and residencies at the Rye Arts Festival and the Lincolnshire International Music Festival. Collaborations have included concerts with the Belcea Quartet, Simon Rowland-Jones, Michael Collins, Moray Welsh, Marc Coppey, and Rebecca Gilliver. Recent highlights have also included performances with pianists Tom Poster, Clare Hammond, and Charles Owen.
The Quartet is currently mentored by the Belcea Quartet through the Belcea Quartet Trust. The group has also worked with members of the Chilingirian, Doric and Hagen Quartets and studied at the Reina Sofia Institute in Madrid with Günter Pichler.
The Piatti Quartet takes its name from the great 19th-century cellist Alfredo Piatti, who was a leading professor and exponent of chamber music at the Royal Academy of Music.
