The Allegri Quartet is a British

string quartet The term string quartet refers to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two Violin, violini ...

that was founded in 1953 by violinist Eli Goren. The other original members were second violinist James Barton, violist Patrick Ireland, and cellist

William Pleeth William Pleeth OBE (12 January 1916 – 6 April 1999) was a well-known British cellist and an eminent teacher, who became widely known as the teacher of Jacqueline du Pré. Biography Early years William Pleeth was born in London. His pa ...

. It is Britain's longest-running chamber music ensemble. A commitment to refreshing the chamber repertoire had led the Allegri Quartet to give more than 60 world premières since 1964, including specially commissioned pieces by leading composers such as

James MacMillan Sir James Loy MacMillan, TOSD (born 16 July 1959) is a Scottish classical composer and conductor. Early life MacMillan was born at Kilwinning, in North Ayrshire, but lived in the East Ayrshire town of Cumnock until 1977. His father is Jam ...

, Jonathan Harvey and

Colin Matthews Colin Matthews, OBE (born 13 February 1946) is an English composer of contemporary classical music. Noted for his large-scale orchestral compositions, Matthews is also a prolific arranger of other composer's music, including works by Berlioz, ...

Reception

A 2001 review in the ''

Glasgow Herald ''The Herald'' is a Scottish broadsheet newspaper founded in 1783. ''The Herald'' is the longest running national newspaper in the world and is the eighth oldest daily paper in the world. The title was simplified from ''The Glasgow Herald'' in ...

'' said that the Allegri Quartet "judged erg's Lyric Suiteto perfection, allowing the important inner lines to merge with unusual clarity and plumbing the score's complex textures in a straightforward and unfussy way, firmly resisting any temptation to milk the charged harmonies or wallow in the passages of brooding melancholy." In comparing and contrasting the Allegri Quartet to the now-defunct

Amadeus Amadeus may refer to: People and fictional characters * Amadeus (name) Amadeus is a theophoric name, theophoric given name derived from the Latin words ' – the Imperative mood, imperative of the word ' ("to love") – and ' ("god"). As a Compou ...

, Bayan Northcott wrote in ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' in 2004 that "where the older group cultivated a tremulous sweetness of sound, the Allegri always went for a plainer, perhaps more deeply penetrating manner – not to say, more adventurous programming."

Personnel

The names of the current performers are shown in emboldened text. The quartet's members have included: 1st Violin * Eli Goren – Founder * Hugh Maguire – Succeeded Goren as leader * Peter Carter – Became leader in 1976 * Daniel Rowland – Joined after Carter's retirement in 2005 * Ofer Falk * Martyn Jackson 2nd Violin * James Barton * Peter Thomas * David Roth * Fiona McNaught * Rafael Todes Viola * Patrick Ireland * Prunella Pacey * Keith Lovell * Roger Tapping * Jonathan Barritt * Dorothea Vogel Cello *

* Bruno Schrecker * Pal Banda * Katherine Jenkinson * Vanessa Lucas-Smith The Quartet celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2004 with performances at venues including Wigmore Hall, London. It held a reunion at the

Llanfyllin Llanfyllin ( – ) is a market town and Community (Wales), community in Powys, Wales. The community (which measures 41.8 square kilometres) population in 2021 was 1,586 and the town's name means ''church or parish'' (Llan (placename), llan) ''o ...

Festival at which many of the past members also performed.

References

Musical groups established in 1953 English string quartets {{Classical-ensemble-stub