Carducci Quartet and Reiko Fujisawa (piano)
Matthew Denton violin
Michelle Fleming violin
Eion Schmidt-Martin viola
Emma Denton cello
An internationally renowned Anglo-Irish string quartet based in the UK, the versatile and award-winning Carducci String Quartet has performed everything from brand new quartets, classic works by Haydn, complete Shostakovich cycles, and even partnered with folk-rock icon Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull. Founded in 1997, the ensemble has won numerous international competitions, including Concert Artists Guild International Competition USA 2007 and First Prize at Finland’s Kuhmo International Chamber Music Competition 2004. In 2016, they took home a Royal Philharmonic Society Award for their performances of cycles of the complete Shostakovich Quartets. This Shostakovich15 project was accompanied by a recording of quartets 4, 8 and 11 for Signum Classics, to which the quartet added a further volume in spring 2019 (1,2 and 7) acclaimed by Gramophone Magazine for its “…athletic, upfront performances, clear in texture, forthright in tone and bold in articulation.” The quartet has released a bevy of acclaimed recordings on their own label, Carducci Classics, as well as Signum Classics, and their Naxos recordings of Philip Glass Quartets have had over six million plays on Spotify.
Reiko Fujisawa fuses the sensibilities of a musician raised in the Far East who trained in the West. She established herself as an exciting and formidable virtuoso performer, making her debut at Southbank Centre in 1999, Wigmore Hall in 2003, and with the Soloists of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the inaugural season at London’s Cadogan Hall in 2006. She has since made appearances at prestigious venues all over the UK. Overseas Reiko was a featured artist at the Japan 2001 Festival with the specially- formed Ensemble Tōzai, which combines western and classical Japanese musicians and repertoires. Her chamber music collaborations also include Principals of Sound, a woodwind and piano ensemble comprising some of the UK’s top wind players, and piano quintets with the Carducci String Quartet. Reiko’s recent concerts include appearances at the new Stoller Hall in Manchester, the Hebden Bridge Piano Festival, London’s King’s Place, and at Southbank Centre’s newly-refurbished Purcell Room. A highlight of Reiko’s solo career so far is an acclaimed CD of music by Bach, Beethoven and Schubert, released on the Quartz and her latest recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations on Quartz received a glowing review from The Record Geijutsu, Japan’s equivalent to The Gramophone, describing it as an “unpretentious, clean and refreshing performance with a refined dignity”.
PROGRAMME
J.S. Bach (1685-1750), trans. Ferruccio Busoni
Chaconne in D minor BWV 1004
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Piano Quintet in Eb major Op 44
I. Allegro brillante
II. In modo d’una marcia. Un poco largamente
III. Scherzo: molto vivace
IV. Allegro ma non troppo
Live Notes is presented by Professor Nicholas Baragwanath (Nottingham University)
The Solfeggio Tradition: A Forgotten Art of Melody in the Long Eighteenth Century (OUP 2020)
The Art of Solfeggio (Facebook Group)
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