The Casals Quartet (''Cuarteto Casals'') is a Spanish
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 ...
based at
l'Auditori
L'Auditori () is a modern building of 42,000 square metres designed by the architect Rafael Moneo, opened on 22 March 1999, in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
It is in the centre of the new pole of urban development of Plaça de les Glòries, wh ...
Reina Sofía School of Music
The Reina Sofía School of Music (Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Spanish) is a private music school founded in Madrid, Spain, in 1991 by Paloma O'Shea. It belongs to the Albéniz Foundation, and it bears the name of its Honorary Pr ...
, Madrid, in 1997 under Professor Antonello Farulli. They studied with Walter Levin and Rainer Schmidt in Barcelona, as well as undertaking graduate work in Cologne under the Alban Berg Quartet and Harald Schoneweg.
The group is named for the well-known 20th-century cellist
Pablo Casals
Pau Casals i Defilló (Catalan: ; 29 December 187622 October 1973), known in English as Pablo Casals,Premio Nacional de Música (National Music Award). A prize from the prestigious Borletti-Buitoni Trust in London in 2008 enabled the quartet to purchase a matching set of classical periodbows.
Until Jonathan Brown's departure in 2024 the quartet comprised:
*Vera Martínez Mehner - Violin.
*Abel Tomàs - Violin.
*Jonathan Brown - Viola.
*Arnau Tomàs - Cello.
Cristina Cordero has since joined on viola.
Unusually, the role of first and second violin can change from piece to piece during a concert.
Appearances
Cuarteto Casals has appeared at the
Wigmore Hall
The Wigmore Hall is a concert hall at 36 Wigmore Street, in west London. It was designed by Thomas Edward Collcutt and opened in 1901 as the Bechstein Hall; it is considered to have particularly good building acoustics, acoustics. It specialis ...
,
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...
Cité de la Musique
The Cité de la Musique (, "City of Music"), also known as Philharmonie 2, is a group of institutions dedicated to music and situated in the Parc de la Villette, 19th arrondissement of Paris, France. It was designed with the nearby Conservatoi ...
Concertgebouw Concertgebouw may refer to one of the following concert halls:
* Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Netherlands
* Concertgebouw, Bruges, Belgium
* Concertgebouw de Vereeniging, Netherlands
{{disambiguation
Buildings and structures disambiguation pages ...
Amsterdam and the Philharmonie in Berlin. Reviewing their two 2012 Wigmore Hall recitals of
Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert (; ; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical period (music), Classical and early Romantic music, Romantic eras. Despite his short life, Schubert left behind a List of compositions ...
's early string quartets, ''
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 ...
'' stated: "one couldn’t have wished for better advocates than the Cuarteto Casals, whose warm, full-toned playing was immaculate and poetic throughout."
The quartet has premiered works by Jordi Cervelló, David del Puerto and Jesús Rueda of Spain, collaborating with James MacMillan of Scotland, and György Kurtág of Hungary, and at the composer's request, has recorded Christian Lauba's quartet, Morphing.
The quartet has accompanied the King of Spain on diplomatic visits and performed on the unique collection of decorated Stradivarius instruments in the Royal Palace in Madrid.
Discography
The quartet has made recordings for
Harmonia Mundi
Harmonia Mundi is a record label that specializes in classical music, jazz, and world music (on the World Village label). It was founded in France in 1958 and is now a subsidiary of PIAS Entertainment Group, which is itself owned by Universal M ...
, with repertoire ranging from lesser known Spanish composers Arriaga and Toldrá to Viennese classics
Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...
,
Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn ( ; ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions ...
and
Brahms
Johannes Brahms (; ; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor of the mid- Romantic period. His music is noted for its rhythmic vitality and freer treatment of dissonance, often set within studied ye ...
, through 20th Century greats Bartók, Kurtág and Ligeti.
Reviewing their disc of
Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert (; ; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical period (music), Classical and early Romantic music, Romantic eras. Despite his short life, Schubert left behind a List of compositions ...
's String Quartets D87 & D887, Fiona Maddocks, the ''Observer'''s music critic said that "the excellent Spanish ensemble bring supple radiance and flair to two works which span Schubert's brief career".
Video recordings of Cuarteto Casals' broadcast performances in Spain and Germany are available o YouTube