Doric String QuartetAlex Redington, violin
Jonathan Stone, violin
Simon Tandree, viola
John Myerscough, 'cello
'This is the Quartet's first release for Chandos and it couldn't be more auspicious. Their playing is alive to every nuance and turn of phrase in these endearing valentines to the city of the composer's birth. This is a most desirable issue of music with which the Doric are totally at ease.'
Korngold String Quartets - Gramophone November 2010
Described by Gramophone Magazine as ‘one of the finest young string quartets’, whose members are ‘musicians with fascinating things to say’ the Doric String Quartet has received glowing responses from audiences and critics across the globe. Amongst its numerous awards include 1st prize at the 2008 Osaka International Chamber Music Competition in Japan, 2nd prize at the Premio Paolo Borciani International String Quartet Competition in Italy and the Ensemble Prize at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Germany. The Quartet was represented by Young Concert Artists Trust (YCAT) from 2006-2010.
Since its formation in 1998 the Quartet has performed across the world and collaborated with artists including Ian Bostridge, Philip Langridge, Mark Padmore, Piers Lane, Kathryn Stott, Chen Halevi and the Florestan Trio. In autumn 2010 the Quartet made its highly acclaimed American debut with recitals at the Frick Museum in New York and Library of Congress in Washington. Other recent highlights include recitals at the Berlin Konzerthaus, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Vienna Konzerthaus, Hamburg Laeiszhalle and in Brussels, Frankfurt, Lucerne, Milan, Moscow and Paris. In addition to their regular appearances at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern the Quartet has performed at the Carinthischer Sommer, Incontri inTerra di Siena, East Neuk, Isle of Man, I Soloisti del Vento and Schwetzinger Festivals. Further afield they have toured to Japan, Israel, Australia and New Zealand.
Highlights of the 2012/13 season include returns to the Berlin Konzerthaus and Amsterdam Concertgebouw, as well as recitals at the Stockholm Konzerthaus and in Prague, Denmark, Norway, Poland and Israel. The Quartet will undertake its third US tour in November with concerts in Washington DC, New York State and Pennsylvania and returns later in the season for three concerts at the Vancouver Recital Society. UK engagements include two performances at Wigmore Hall and a celebration of the 10th anniversary of its residency at the Wiltshire Music Centre.
In 2009 the Doric String Quartet’s first CD was released to critical acclaim on the Wigmore Live label and was chosen as Editor’s Choice in Gramophone 'The Doric’s Haydn sparkles with wit on their impressive [and] very auspicious recording debut'. Since 2010 the Quartet has recorded exclusively for Chandos Records. The first CD, the complete Korngold String Quartets, was released in September 2010 and featured as one of the 2010 Critic’s Choice discs in Gramophone, followed by string quartets by Walton in spring 2011 which was similarly enthusiastically received by the press and nominated for a 2011 Gramophone Award. The Quartet’s most recent release, of the Schumann String Quartets, was named as CD of the Month in Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine and was shortlisted for a 2012 Gramophone Award. The Quartet’s next release will be Schubert’s ‘Rosamunde’ and ‘Death and the Maiden’ quartets (September 12). Other future releases will include works by Chausson, Brett Dean, Bartók and Haydn.
Formed in 1998 at Pro Corda, The National School for Young Chamber Music Players, from 2002 the Doric String Quartet studied on the Paris-based ProQuartet Professional Training Program, where they worked with members of the Alban Berg, Artemis, Hagen and LaSalle Quartets and with György Kurtag. The Quartet continues to work with Rainer Schmidt (Hagen Quartet).
The Doric String Quartet appears by arrangement with Sulivan Sweetland Artist Management and is represented in France by Satirino.
For more information please visit www.doricstringquartet.com
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Press reviewsWALTON String Quartets (Chandos) CHAN10661
'…blazingly committed and triumphantly assured rendering by the Doric Quartet…Their account of the mature A minor Quartet (1944‑47) is more impressive still, displaying an exquisite blend, rhythmic acuity and razor-sharp precision'.
Gramophone May 2011
'The Doric gives outstanding, virtuoso performances of William Walton’s two string quartets'.
The Telegraph (5stars) 25 February 2011
Washington, Library of Congress: String Quartets by HAYDN, KORNGOLD, WEBERN, SCHUMANN
'The group projects a sweet, finely blended tone, faultlessly deployed in Haydn's slow movement, where first violinist Alex Redington found subtle colors to embellish a wistful little melody differently each time it returned.'
Washington Post 22 November 2010
KORNGOLD Complete String Quartets (Chandos) CHAN10611
'This is a disc that is inspirational in every way; the music, the superb young quartet and the high quality of the recording.'
Ensemble Magazine February 2011
'The Doric String Quartet seem to have a highly detailed approach, which is also applied in the fast movements: the waltz in the second quartet has an elegant swing, whilst the virtuosic finale of the last quartet has even more lively spirit…It is wonderful to have such a bench mark recording, which puts Korngold’s much neglected work into a new and deserving light.'
Fonoforum magazine February 2011
'The Doric Quartet manages to combine the necessary linear and rhythmic precision needed to do full justice to Korngold's sophisticated scoring with a warmth of tone and intensity of expression that makes the players highly persuasive advocates… A valuable addition to the Korngold discography.'
Classic FM Magazine (5 Stars) December 2010
'From the off, the Dorics stamp their own emphatic claim to ownership with a bold incisive feel for the swirling stylistic and emotional undercurrents in Korngold’s characteristically rhythmically alert, sumptuously lyrical and exquisitely crafted music.. These are benchmark performances by a Doric String Quartet clearly on the cusp of great things.'
BBC Review 30 November 2010
'This the quartet's first release for Chandos and it couldn't be more auspicious. Their playing is alive to every nuance and turn of phrase in these endearing valentines to the city of the composer's birth. This is a most desirable issue of music with which the Doric foursome are totally at ease.'
Gramophone Editor’s Choice November 2010
'Four guys in suits; they could be bankers. But bankers don't play music with the passion and finesse of this young British group. They're playing the three string quartets of Erich Wolfgang Korngold, the Austrian wunderkind who remained wonderful even when writing film scores for Errol Flynn. Each quartet, from different decades, twists the kaleidoscope a different way. No 1 is knottily chromatic; the second salutes old Vienna; while the third and best looks back on life with melancholy, regret and laughter.'
The Times (4 Stars) 4 September 2010
Perth Concert Hall: SCHUBERT String Trio & Rosamunde
'… and here was a performance of quite exceptional finesse, so soft-grained in its opening notes that you had to tune your ears to the theme that would later inspire the opening of Verdi’s Requiem, but invariably responsive to those sudden explosions of temper that became a feature of so many of Schubert’s masterpieces.'
The Herald 12 October 2010
Wigmore Hall: KORNGOLD String Quartet No 1, MAXWELL DAVIES' Blake Dreaming' for string quartet and baritone (world premiere), BRITTEN String Quartet No 2
'This recital showed just why the Doric Quartet has recently been attracting so much praise. From the technical standpoint the players are superb, but, beyond that, they blend together as though of one mind – the touchstone of any such group.'
Classical Source 30 April 2010
HAYDN Op 9/4, Op 50/2, Op 76/1 (Wigmore Live) WHLive0032
'With their trademark wonderful timing, here comes a disc from the Dorics to remind us why they have been mentioned in this issue’s cover story as one of the finest young string quartets. There is, properly, a seriousness to their Haydn here as well as a polish that marks them out as musicians with fascinating things to say… The Doric’s Haydn sparkles with wit on their impressive first recording… their very auspicious recording debut.'
Gramophone Magazine February 2010 - EDITOR’S CHOICE featuring music by five of the leading young string quartets of today
Edinburgh, Queen’s Hall: HAYDN Op 50/2 , KORNGOLD Quartet No 3, BEETHOVEN Op 74
'At a time when new string quartets are two a penny, the Doric Quartet has cleared its first hurdles with impressive ease… Haydn served this week as launching-pad for its New Town Concert in Edinburgh… The finesse of the performance, in which nothing was overemphasised, spoke for itself. The soft-grained detail of the first movement showed immediately why these players are going places.'
The Herald 4 March 2009
Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall: HAYDN Op 20/1, JANACEK String Quartet No 2, BEETHOVEN Op 59/1 ‘
'Making their York debut, last year’s winners of the Japan Osaka Competition, the Doric’s showed that they are today’s finest UK Quartet at a time when we are inundated with brilliant young ensembles…Technically they are superb, their account of Janacék’s highly charged, passionate and deeply emotional Intimate Letters capturing to perfection the enormous mood swings and massive dynamic range. They have the ability to play modern works with such deep understanding, yet can perform Haydn with a period awareness that is becoming all too rare. It is a wonderfully balanced ensemble with an uncommonly fine cello in John Myerscough, and a leader, Alex Redington, whose intonation is spotlessly clean. You only had to listen to their extraordinarily quiet ending to the slow movement in Beethoven’s Harp Quartet to know they are not afraid of taking risks.'
Yorkshire Post February 2009
Wigmore Hall HAYDN Op 9/4, Op 50, Op 76/1, Op 50/1
'Haydn and the Doric are a perfect match. This is an ensemble, young but mature of insight, that plays Haydn’s music with spirit, illuminating its blend of wit and sophistication, grace and vivacity, cunning and seemingly effortless spontaneity… The Doric’s performances, without exaggeration but with just the right degree of elucidation, revealed the music’s extraordinary originality and the way that Haydn can explore the potential of his thematic material so thoroughly yet so artlessly… Unequivocally, these were performances of terrific panache and perception, seeming to get right under the skin of Haydn’s creative genius.'
The Sunday Telegraph (5 Stars) 18 January 2009
Festspiele Mecklenburgh-Vorpommern
'Powerful, passionate and precise…The Doric String Quartet triumphed in their German debut'
Nordkurier July 2008
'Seldom has Beethoven’s Opus 18 no. 1 quartet been performed with such thrilling intensity and uncompromised clarity. This was Beethoven full of new insights.'
Ostsee Zeitung July 2008
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Programmes 2013 - 2014 season
Autumn 2013
HAYDN - Quartet Op 87 N°4 or Op 20 N°1
BARTOK - Quartet N°4 or KORNGOLD - Quartet N°2
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BEETHOVEN - Quartet N°8 in E minor, Op 59 N°2
ou SCHUMANN - Quartet Op 41 N°3
Printemps 2014
HAYDN - Quartet Op 76 N°3 or Op 76 N°4 'Sunrise'
KORNGOLD - Quartet N°2, Op 26 or JANACEK - Quatuor N°1
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BEETHOVEN - Quartet Op 127 or MENDELSSOHN - Quatuor Op 44 N°2
A partir d'avril 2014
HAYDN - Quatuor Op. 76 N°6 or Op 76 N°3
JANACEK - Quartet N°1 or JANACEK - Quatuor N°2
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SCHUBERT - Quartet in G major
Doric String Quartet on Youtube 
Discography
Doric String Quartet on iTunes
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