Heath Quartet
A group with a strong international presence, the Heath Quartet perform two towering works in the string quartet repertoire: the Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 18, No. 6 by Beethoven and Schubert‘s Quartet in D minor, D. 810, Death and the Maiden.
Artist Images
Program
For several years the Heath Quartet has forged a strong international presence. After being awarded the prestigious Borletti-Buitoni Special Ensemble Scholarship in 2011, they undertook complete Beethoven cycles at the Facyl Festival in Salamanca and in Edinburgh to great acclaim. Their program features two towering achievements in the string quartet repertoire: the Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 18, No. 6 by Beethoven and Schubert‘s Quartet in D minor, D. 810, Death and the Maiden.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 18, No. 6
Intermission
Franz Schubert (1797–1828)
Quartet in D minor, D. 810, Death and the Maiden
About the Artists
Described by The Strad as giving “passionate performances that combine technical accomplishment with interpretative flair,” the Heath Quartet is rapidly emerging as an exciting and original voice on the international chamber music scene.
Recipients of the 2012 Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Ensemble Prize, the Quartet has performed at many major festivals and venues throughout Europe including the Barbican, Bridgewater Hall, Sage Gateshead, Queen’s Hall Edinburgh, the Musikverein, Esterhazy Palace, Konzerthaus Berlin and Vara Konserthus (Sweden) as well as the Schwetzinger and Kissingen Winterzauber festivals. Over the last year highlights have included debuts at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels and DeSingel Arts Centre in Antwerp, recitals with Michael Collins in Germany and Austria, appearances at the Salisbury, Peasmarsh, Mecklenberg-Vorpommern and Spitalfields festivals, as well as several concerts recorded for BBC Radio 3. Other artists the quartet has collaborated with include Ian Bostridge, Edgar Meyer, Stephen Hough, Lawrence Power, the Tokyo Quartet and Colin Currie, and the composers Sofia Gubaidalina, Steve Mackey and Brett Dean.
The Quartet performs regularly at Wigmore Hall where future engagements include complete cycles of both the Tippett and Bartok quartets and a collaboration with Anna Caterina Antonacci. This year the quartet will make their debut at Carnegie Hall as part of a USA tour, return to perform at the Concertgebouw and Louvre, appear onstage in Calixto Beieto’s Fidelio at the London Coliseum, and tour Mexico. The Quartet are members of faculty at Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
The Heath Quartet was formed in 2002 at the Royal Northern College of Music under the guidance of Dr. Christopher Rowland and Alasdair Tait, with whom they continued their studies at the Reina Sofia in Madrid. They were Leverhulme Junior Fellows at the RNCM from 2008 to 2010, and Senior Fellows at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama from 2010 to 2012. The Quartet has undertaken residencies at the Banff Centre in Canada and the Britten-Pears School, Snape Maltings, and studied at IMS Prussia Cove with András Schiff and Erich Höbarth. Other teachers have included Ferenc Rados, Isabelle Charisius and members of the Lindsay, Smetana, Takacs and LaSalle Quartets.