Moving On Music presents the award winning, “brilliantly fresh, unexpected and exhilarating” Maxwell Quartet on tour of NI.
Now firmly regarded as one of Britain’s finest young string quartets, they have a strong connection to their folk music heritage and a commitment to bringing together wide-ranging projects and programmes to expand the string quartet repertoire.
The quartet performs regularly across the UK, Europe and their debut tour of the USA in 2019 saw performances to sold out venues in New York, Florida, California and Washington. In 2020, the quartet undertook a 35-date tour of the United States. The quartet’s collaborators have included the Danish String Quartet, Calidore Quartet, pianist Imogen Cooper, clarinettist Kari Krikku, baritone Roderick Williams, and folk duo Chris Stout & Catriona McKay.
The Quartet have released two records on Linn Records (2019, and 2021) featuring string quartets by Haydn alongside the quartet’s own compositions based on Scottish traditional folk music and received unanimously glowing reviews from international press. Their third album ‘Gather’ (released in 2023) is a musical foraging project, bringing together different elements of Scottish traditional music into new compositions for the quartet.
The Quartet is formed of four close friends, who grew up playing folk and classical music together in youth orchestras and music schools across Scotland. The quartet officially formed in 2010 and has since held residencies at Oxford University, Perth Concert Hall and many chamber music festivals across the UK, including their own festival Loch Shiel in the west highlands of Scotland, and a new self- curated concert series at Guardswell Farm in Perthshire. The quartet currently holds the position of Associate Artist at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow, and at Music at Paxton Festival in the Scottish Borders.
Programme:
Haydn, String Quartet in E flat, op 20 no 1
Maxwell Quartet, Gather (Folk music of Scotland)
Interval
Beethoven, String Quartet in C sharp minor, Op 131
A young ensemble whose fresh, unaffected playing marries technical brilliance with an authentically Haydnesque joie de vivre” Gramophone
“Take note of the Maxwell Quartet… they bring charisma and a sense of adventure to their programmes” New York Times
“Superb storytelling from four great communicators” The Strad
“Brilliantly fresh, unexpected and exhilarating” The Scottish Herald