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

A concert of Mendelssohn and Enescu octets which proves that eight can be more than four plus four.

Sometimes you just marvel at the level of musical inspiration and the virtuosic quality of the playing. The two octets by Mendelssohn and Enescu make a very satisfying pairing.

Vilde Frang and Bertrand Chamayou join the Belcea Quartet for a musical feast including Chausson's sumptuous Concert. 

Heavenly strings and Hellish piano from the Belcea Quartet and their celebrity guests in Crail as the 2023 East Neuk Festival begins.

Two larger than life piano quintets share star billing on an intense Wigmore Hall programme. 

Issues with technical filming couldn't mar the artistry of a great set of musicians as they tackled Brahms' String Sextets.

Like all great quartets, each member contributed their individual voice but, in the combination of all four, they created something extraordinary and compelling.

An accomplished performance by the renowned Belcea Quartet marked the first of the summer’s “Serenade” concerts, an open-air series held in the park of the historic Villa Schönberg. 

The Belcea Quartet gave us bleak despair in their Shostakovich, but joined by Antoine Tamestit, they also gave us joyful Mozart and life-affirming Brahms.

Britten and Shostakovich were great friends, so it was appropriate that both composers were represented in the Belcea Quartet's two recitals on the opening weekend of the 70th Aldeburgh Festival. 

  The concert, which also featured quartets by Mozart and Brahms, was characterized by elegance and refinement, but also great musical drama.

The epic Birmingham Beethoven Cycle is a remarkable collaboration, in the 2012/13 season, between the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (who are performing all the symphonies), Town Hall Symphony Hall and a variety of outstanding artists including Leif Ove Andsnes, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Steven Osborne.

Continuing their Beethoven cycle, the Belcea Quartet gave us another selection spanning Beethoven’s string quartet writing, allowing us to see how Beethoven transformed the medium from its elegant beginnings through to the complexity and expressiveness of his final works.

Reviewing is a remarkable pastime. Last week I reviewed a new jazz opera about baseball for kids from Hackney, something I never thought I’d do. Now I’m reviewing a concert about as far removed from Shadowball as could be possible: not physically, but musically, philosophically and emotionally.

The members of the Belcea Quartet met at the Royal College of Music, but hail from across Europe - France, Romania, Poland and Switzerland, making me wonder which common language they use for working.

The uncluttered stage mirrored the promised clarity of quality string quartet writing and playing; four chairs, four music stands, BBC microphones suspended on a wire, promising a future broadcast. A capacity Queen's Hall audience of 900 welcomed this young quartet, a decade after their Edinburgh International Festival début.

Schubert’s deeply contemplative String Quintet was a bold but worthy choice for the first Late Night Prom of the season. It is rare for a string quartet (in this case augmented by an extra cellist) to grace the main stage of the Proms, although chamber music is well represented in the Proms Chamber Music series.

A show of “all our favourite people”. Violinist Matthew Trusler's description of the charity concert organised by himself and his wife Maya Koch refers to his and Koch’s favourite people; however he could very well have meant his audience’s or even the concert-going public.

Mit Schönberg und Beethoven im Pierre Boulez Saal gedenkt das Quartett ihrem Gründungsmitglied.

Après un Premier Sextuor op. 18 de Brahms assez déroutant car comme interprété avec le frein à main, le Deuxième Sextuor op. 36 a donné lieu à un jeu généreux et convaincant.

Verfeinert mit Tabea Zimmermann und Jean-Guihen Queyras bietet das Belcea Quartet einen unvergesslichen Abend mit Brahms’ Streichsextetten.

Le quatuor et le violoncelliste ont proposé une interprétation légendaire du formidable Quintette en ut de Schubert, après une incursion originale chez Boccherini.

Wie lebendig Streichquartette klingen können, belegte einmal mehr das Belcea Quartet bei seinem jüngsten Gastspiel im Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin.

Oft fälschlich als Frühwerke abgetan: Quartette von Schubert, Dvořák und Debussy zeigten im fulminanten Spiel des Belcea Quartets im Salzburger Mozarteum eine beeindruckende Größe.

Au Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, le Quatuor Belcea réaffirme sa maestria dans un Schubert exalté et nerveux, et dans un Chostakovitch lisse mais hypnotisant.

Deux cas de Covid-19 ont obligé les Quatuors Belcea et Ébène à revoir leur programme quelques heures avant leur entrée en scène, ce qui n'a en rien gâté un concert légendaire.

Moment de grâce absolue avec les Belcea, Zimmerman et Queyras, à la Philharmonie du Luxembourg qui reste encore ouverte malgré le contexte sanitaire. 

Mit ihrem Beethoven-Zyklus im Pierre Boulez Saal hat das Belcea Quartet Maßstäbe gesetzt.

Auch am dritten Abend glänzt das Belcea Quartet mit einem frühen, mittleren und späten Beethoven-Quartett.

Auch am zweiten Abend des Beethoven-Zyklus bleibt das Quartett unübertroffen.

Was für ein Auftakt im Pierre Boulez Saal!

Le Belcea Quartet donnait le premier de ses six concerts consacrés à Beethoven au Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. L'événement s'annonçait exceptionnel ; la réalisation a dépassé ces attentes.

Mit Schubert, Britten und Schostakowitsch öffnet und schließt das Belcea Quartet auf unterschiedliche Weise Kreise.

Mit Mendelssohn Bartholdys f-Moll-Streichquartett riss das Quartett die Zuhörer von ihren Sitzen.

Das Belcea Quartet überzeugte mit apollinischer Heiterkeit bei Mozart und atmosphärischer Dichte und Dramatik in Janáčeks Erstem Quartett.

On ne dira jamais assez combien les prestations live paraissent supérieures à celles qui s’élaborent dans l’intimité du studio : à preuve le renversant diptyque Brahms donné lundi soir au Gstaad Menuhin Festival au côté du pianiste Till Fellner.

Remplaçant le Quatuor Artemis, en deuil de leur altiste Friedemann Weigle, les Belcea nous offrent deux très belles lectures des Dissonances de Mozart et de l'Op. 131 de Beethoven, œuvres qu'ils traduisent avec beaucoup de finesse.

Le Belcea Quartet donnait un trio (Beethoven), un quatuor (Brahms) et un sextuor (Schoenberg) au Wigmore Hall de Londres. Une belle soirée, sans défauts majeurs et caractérisée par une interprétation prometteuse, mais qui n'est pas allée jusqu'au bout de l'émotion.