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

Dazzling Prokofiev from Alim Beisembayev and the RLPO

Peter Connors, 26th April

In an all-Russian programme in Liverpool, Alim Beisembayev gives a breathtaking performance of Prokofiev's fiendishly difficult Second Piano Concerto.

****1

A Evgeny Kissin tour de force in Boston

Kevin Wells, 25th April

Andrey Boreyko makes an impressive debut with the Boston Symphony, where Evgeny Kissin performs in not one, but two piano concertos.

****1

Wretches like us: the LPO’s concert Wozzeck cuts to the quick

Peter Quantrill, 25th April

Beautifully prepared singing and playing brings out the tender side to Berg's modernist classic as part of the Southbank Centre’s Multitudes festival.

****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”.