Directory
They are one of the most perfectly balanced quartets in Europe today, each strand wonderfully clear and beautifully focused…yet there is always a feeling of spontaneity.
David Denton, The Yorkshire Post
Formed in 1971, The Medici Quartet is widely regarded as one of Britain's leading international ensembles, having appeared to critical acclaim in more than thirty countries across five continents. As well as regular radio broadcasts, they have a wide ranging and eclectic discography which includes a Beethoven Quartets Cycle, the seldom heard Saint-Saëns Quartets and Wajahat Khan's Sarod Quintet Raag Desh.
In 1996 Channel 4 Television broadcast a three-part series entitled Music & the Mind, performed by The Medici Quartet and presented by their leader Paul Robertson; these programmes explored the powerful effect that music has on the human brain. The growing awareness of the role that music plays in the healing process has led to links with the Amsterdam Medical Centre and the Karolinska Institute Stockholm as well as Chelsea & Westminster, Geneva University, Guy's, Royal London, Michigan University & St Thomas' Hospitals.
The Medici Quartet were appointed Artists in Residence at the University of Surrey in autumn 1996; in addition to Celebrity Concerts this very successful Residency has included Composers' and Quartet Workshops, Tonmeister Sessions, an experimental Dance Project and premières of Wajahat Khan's Sarod Quintet and Nigel Osborne's First String Quartet Medicinal Songs & Dances. They have also developed a strong association with the Royal University College of Music in Stockholm.
The Medici Quartet are renowned for their dramatic programmes for string quartet and actors, which reveal the intimate relationship between the composer's work and his life & times through the imaginative conjunction of music and readings. Two particularly successful programmes are The Kingdom of the Spirit: Beethoven through his Letters compiled by John Caird and Michael Kennedy's compilation of the letters of Sir Edward and Lady Elgar at Brinkwells entitled Wood Magic. They also perform Haydn's Seven Last Words with meditations selected and read by the distinguished broadcaster Margaret Howard.
To mark their 30th anniversary, The Medici Quartet commissioned Hymn: a memoir of music in childhood written by Alan Bennett with music by George Fenton. Since the première at the 2001 Harrogate International Festival, The Medici Quartet and Alan Bennett have given further live performances at St George's Bristol, Buxton Festival and Bridgewater Hall Manchester. The BBC Invitation Concert of Hymn has been broadcast twice on BBC Radio 4 and was issued as a BBC Worldwide CD.
Recent and forthcoming highlights include concerts in Amsterdam, Athens, Barber Institute Birmingham, St George's Bristol, Dubrovnik, Lausanne, Rodewald Concert Society Liverpool, Seville, Strasbourg, Thessaloniki and the Wigmore Hall. They have also appeared at the festivals of Al Bustan, Bath, Belfast, Canterbury, Cambridge, City of London, Harrogate, Mananan, Nafplion, Newbury, Norfolk & Norwich, Perth, Rye, Swansea and Worcester Three Choirs. In spring 2003 The Medici Quartet returned to London's Blackheath Halls with a six-concert Beethoven cycle; during the 2003/4 season they return to The Dorking Halls, The Old Market Hove and The Guardian Hay Festival with three beautifully integrated concert series. In July 2004 their three-year relationship with the Petworth Festival culminates in a Beethoven String Quartets Cycle.
Their innovative new project With Strings Attached tells the inside story of The Medici Quartet in their own words with music. Designed to appeal to both music-makers and music-lovers, it offers an exceptional opportunity to gain an insight into the private world of a string quartet.
Stephen Morris second violin, plays a Joannes Udalricus Eberle violin made in Prague in 1760.
Ivo-Jan van der Werff, viola plays a Giovanni Grancino viola made in Milan circa 1690.
Anthony Lewis, cello plays a Giancinto Rugeri cello made in Cremona circa 1690.