British Quartets: The Castalian Quartet at the Cheltenham Music Festival

By Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres, 11 July 2012

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Reviewed at Pittville Pump Room, Cheltenham on 8 July 2012

Wood, String Quartet no. 5, Op.45

Nyman, String Quartet no. 2

Swayne, String Quartet no.3

Castalian String Quartet

A constellation of quartets end the East Neuk Festival

Simon Thompson, 29th June

Sixteen of the finest string players around join forces on one stage to end the East Neuk Festival in a grand finale.

****1

A Brahms clarinet feast from Michael Collins at Wigmore Hall

Mark Pullinger, 6th January

Brahms wrote four of the greatest works in the clarinet repertoire for his friend Richard Mühlfeld. The indefatigable Michael Collins performed three of them in the latest recital in Stephen Hough's Brahms residency.

*****

An engaging evening of Haydn with the Castalian Quartet

Mark Pullinger, 17th April

Would Haydn be the perfect dinner party guest? Witty banter and joyful exchanges characterise the three quartets given at Wigmore Hall as part of its Haydn series.

****1

Savall conducts Beethoven and Haydn at the Elbphilharmonie

Mengguang Huang, 3rd April

Beethoven's Christus am Ölberge is paired with Haydn's Die sieben letzten Worte, a journey from agony to transcendence in which the agony proves the more honest companion.

***11

Portraits and pictures from Ibragimova, Gardner and the LPO

Roy Westbrook, 1st April

From Three Screaming Popes to Pictures at an Exhibition, a pair of works inspired by paintings frame a violin concerto by Béla Bartók at London's Southbank Centre.

****1

Energy, precision and drama from the Philadelphia Orchestra

Susan Stempleski, 31st March

Marin Alsop is joined by pianist Hayato Sumino as she conducts the Philadelphians in an exhilarating program of works by John Adams, Gershwin and Prokofiev.

****1

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Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres

Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres is a Bristol-based film composer and classical electronic artist. Alexandra's passion in scoring and as a performer lie in the duality between the classical and electronica worlds, moving picture and her love for the piano. Her music has been described by The White Room Magazine as “majestic, at times monumental…the force and vastness of nature”.