Our NEws!

November News

We were incredibly lucky to get the Wigmore Hall all to ourselves to prepare a special concert to be broadcast live on YouTube @ 7pm, Wednesday 4th November, 2020. We are so grateful to our friends at McInroy & Wood for enabling this magnificent opportunity - it was such a pleasure. You can view the concert premiere or catch it during the month of November via the link below. Please - be our guest!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=i4I0CJzZkCo

Dvořák Disc

The recent reviews have been so wonderful, we are so excited to share the latest instalment of our Dvořák series with Signum Records. Our performances of his 8th & 10th quartets were chosen as Gramophone Magazine’s Editor’s Choice for February! You can purchase directly from Signum here;

https://signumrecords.com/product/dvorak-string-quartets-8-10/SIGCD597/

and here for the full Gramophone review;

https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/dvor-k-string-quartets-nos-8-and-10-albion-quartet

We have new management!

It is really exciting for us to announce that we have joined Bridge Arts Management! It feels like a wonderful new home for us alongside some truly great artists who we admire. So looking forward to what the future holds!

For all enquiries for the UK and general information please contact

Alison Heather aheather@bridgeartsmanagement.com

(see contact page for full info)

We would like to thank Annette Förger for all of the wonderful work she has done for us in the past 4 years. It has been a pleasure!

February Reviews

“The playing, by the excellent Albion, is masterly in its vividness, freedom and sensitivity” David Cairns, Sunday Times, 16.2.2020 (CD review, Dvorak Quartets 8 & 10)

Wonderful review from our RWCMD Cardiff residency performance!

https://seenandheard-international.com/2020/02/outstanding-playing-from-the-albion-quartet-in-cardiff/

Our New Release!

14.2.2020

We are thrilled to announce our next disc in partnership with Signum Records, Dvořák’s scintillating 8th & 10th quartets!

More information here;

https://signumrecords.com/product-category/artists/albion-quartet/

Live Broadcasts

3rd, 4th, 5th & 6th December, 2019

You can tune in to BBC Radio 3 @ 1pm each day to hear our recent performances in the Belfast International Arts Festival, featuring quartets, piano quartets and violin/piano duos with guest artist Charles Owen.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006tny5/episodes/guide

December, 2019

Stay tuned for exciting news about the launch of our charity initiative, ‘Friends of the Albion Quartet’. We are preparing to delve into more in-depth outreach work in the coming years, bringing the magic and joy of chamber music to children who are unlikely to get access to the experience of live classical music. A cause which is so close to our hearts and we are so excited to get to work!

We will feature news of the work, the charity itself and ways in which you can become involved on our website. We hope you might be tempted to become an official ‘friend’!

November, 2019

Wigmore Hall was the stage for some electric performances of 3 of Freya Waley-Cohen’s tactile and utterly magical works commissioned for the quartet; including ‘Conjure’, a string trio which received it’s world premiere on this occasion. The concert was part of an entire day dedicated to Freya Waley-Cohen, featured as composer in residence for the hall in this season. Waley-Cohen’s compositions were partnered with Beethoven’s epic Grosse Fugue Op. 133 as part of the ‘Beethoven 250’ celebrations.

https://wigmore-hall.org.uk/whats-on/albion-quartet-201911021430

October, 2019

We are thrilled to announce that we have partnered with new management in Italy and in Spain. We are beyond excited to create strong bonds with European audiences, and are delighted to work with Leonardo Finotti in Italy, and Gerardo Gómez de Valcárcel of ‘Linked Artists’ in Spain. See our ‘Contact Us’ page for individual details.

September, 2019

Wonderful 5 star review from Michael Church, featured in The Independent for their concert in London’s first ‘Ragged Music Festival’.

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical/reviews/ragged-music-festival-copperfield-road-tower-hamlets-classical-mozart-a9112221.html

“They bring a molten intensity to its opening movement, luminous transparency to the Fugue, and they invest the chromatically-sliding leitmotif of the Intermezzo with a haunting ominousness.”

August, 2019

The reviews are in - performances in this year’s Presteigne Festival were a triumph, garnering 4 & 5 stars for their concerts featuring stunning new commissions by Freya Waley-Cohen & Cheryl Frances-Hoad. The main concert will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in early 2020.

The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/aug/26/albion-quartet-le-trionnaire-review-frances-hoad-presteigne-festival

“The Albion brought a gently intimate and introspective quality to Dvořák’s American quartet, usually treated more robustly, but here the understated and unsentimental factor also helped set the stage for Frances-Hoad’s clarinet quintet. The quartet were at their most convincing in Walton’s Quartet in A minor (now called the second after the rediscovery of an early quartet). Colours and textures were beautifully judged, from febrile to mercurial and finally spiky. The writing favours the viola throughout and Ann Beilby’s amber tone made the contemplative Lento particularly eloquent.” Rian Evans

Classical Source

http://www.classicalsource.com/db_control/db_concert_review.php?id=16753

Hereford Times

https://www.herefordtimes.com/leisure/17875322.review-presteigne-festival/

March, 2019

We received a lovely review from Richard Bratby for Artsdesk for a recent concert in Birmingham Town Hall -

'“Having played with superb refinement in the vocal works, the Albions delivered Maconchy’s taut single-movement quartet with a lyricism and verve that bordered on the insouciant. But why shouldn’t a work as knotty as this (think Bartók meets Walton) sound beautiful? The four players moved together, thought together, and – taking their lead from Waley-Cohen’s lightly worn virtuosity and gloriously smoky sound – locked onto Maconchy’s overcast textures and rhythmic impulse with an ease that made it all feel inevitable. And over far too quickly, too: though if there’s one thing that this concert proved, it’s that the Albion Quartet sees chamber music as something infinitely more interesting than an end in itself.”

Major Announcement

February, 2019

We are thrilled to announce that violist Ann Beilby has joined us! We will be adding more new photos in the coming days, but for now - here’s to a long future of joyful music making together!

Great Review in Neue Westfalische

We received a lovely review from a recent concert in Corvey, Germany ;

Breathless silence was followed by enthusiastic applause and loud bravos – the audience in the Kaisersaal of Schloss Corvey applauded frenetically after a stunning performance of Dvorak’s Slavonic string quartet by the British Albion Quartet, which brought the festival to a close.

 Burkhard Battran, Neue Westfälische, September 2018 

5 Star review in the Times for Ryedale Festival

July 2018

"Bucketfuls of energy, team work, and ideas" from Richard Morrison for our Beethoven Harp quartet. 

Debut in Amsterdam and first recordings!

 April 2018

Another busy month for the Albions! 

They made their debut at the Concertgebouw, which was broadcast live on Dutch Radio. You can hear the podcast here:

http://www.radio4.nl/zondagochtendconcert/podcast

The next day they flew to Prague to record Richard Blackford's Kalon with the Czech Philharmonic and Jiří Rožeň.

Then they came back to England to record the first of their Dvořák discs for Signum Records.

Debut in Paris and Snape Maltings Residency

March 2018

The Albions stepped in at the eleventh hour to perform at the lunchtime series of the Auditorium du Louvre in the middle of their Snape Maltings Residency. The quartet played Dvořák's American Quartet and Schubert's Rosamunde at this unexpected Paris debut! (The same programme they had played at Jubliee Hall in Aldeburgh and the Assembly House in Norwich the week before.) They then dashed back to give the first performance of the Easter Weekend at Orford Church the following day.

Kings Place Residency 

February 2018

The quartet is very much looking forward to the second concert of their Kings Place Residency on Sunday 25th February, 6.30pm, in Hall One. Their programme focuses on pieces inspired by hymns. Tickets are available online here:

https://www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on/classical/albion-string-quartet/

Latest Interviews and Belgian debut

January 2018

The Albions were interviewed on Klassiek Centraal and Demandez le programme ahead of their performance at the Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth in Belgium. You can read and listen to the interviews here:

https://klassiek-centraal.be/nieuws/in-de-kijker/presenting-a-collective-opinion-on-stage-is-the-only-way/

https://www.rtbf.be/auvio/detail_demandez-le-programme?id=2304071

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

January 2018

The Albions have much to look forward to this year, including their first concerts in Belgium (Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth),The Netherlands (Het Concertgebouw Kleine Zaal), Sweden (Båstad Chamber Music Festival), and Germany (for Martin Randall Travel). Closer to home you can catch them performing at some wonderful festivals, such as Harrogate Music Festival, Hay Festival, Ryedale Music Festival, and the Stratford Festival of Words and Music. After a residency at Snape Maltings they'll be recording for Signum records, and recording with the Czech Philharmonic.

New Residencies!

October 2017

The Albions have had an exciting start to their 2017-2018 season, which has seen the start of these two residencies. They look forward to their next concerts for LCMS at Kings Place and at the RWCM&D. They very much enjoyed working with the enthusiastic and engaged students at RWCM&D and can't wait for their next visit!

En France

19th-22nd August 2017

Chateau de Sainte-Mère, Gascony

The Albion quartet will be playing a series of concerts with a wide variety of wonderful music in this tenth anniversary Festival of Sainte-Mère. It’s about an hour’s drive from Toulouse airport.

http://saintemerefestival.net/

Watch the Albions at TEDxLondon

June 2017

The Albions played at Sadler's Wells as part of Tamsin's TEDxLondon talk 'Reading the score like a book.'