The Doric String Quartet is based in the UK and was formed in 1998. As of 2022, the members are Alex Redington and Ying Xue on violin, Hélène Clément on viola and John Myerscough on cello. Past members include Jonathan Stone (violin; 1998–2018) and Simon Tandree (viola; 1998–2013). In 2008, the quartet won first prize at the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition and second prize at the "

Premio Paolo Borciani The International String Quartet Competition "Premio Paolo Borciani" was created in 1987 in Reggio Emilia, Italy, and is dedicated to their famous fellow citizen, founder and first violin of thQuartetto Italiano The promoter and organiser iFondazion ...

" International String Quartet Competition. Their repertoire includes Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert,

Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic music, Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositi ...

, Schumann, Bartók, Janáček,

Korngold Erich Wolfgang Korngold (May 29, 1897November 29, 1957) was an Austrian-born American composer and conductor. A child prodigy, he became one of the most important and influential composers in Hollywood history. He was a noted pianist and compo ...

and Britten, as well as the work of contemporary composers such as John Adams, Thomas Adès and Brett Dean. They have given premieres of works by Dean, Peter Maxwell Davies and Donnacha Dennehy. The Doric is Teaching Quartet in Association with the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke of ...

(from 2015) and artistic director of the

Mendelssohn on Mull Festival The Mendelssohn on Mull Festival is an annual festival of chamber music. It is held at various venues on the Scottish islands of Mull and Iona and the surrounding area. The festival was founded in 1988 by Leonard Friedman. Since Friedman's de ...

(from 2018). They have recorded for Chandos since 2009.

Members

The original quartet comprised Alex Redington and Jonathan Stone ( violins), Simon Tandree ( viola) and John Myerscough ( cello). There have been some changes in the line-up over the years: Hélène Clément replaced Tandree on viola in 2013, and Ying Xue replaced Stone as second violin in 2018. The current members are: *Alex Redington, violin: has played instruments by Carlo Tononi and Paulo Castello *Ying Xue, violin: Chinese-born violinist; formerly played with the American Parker String Quartet *Hélène Clément, viola: French-born violist; plays an instrument by Guissani owned by Benjamin Britten *John Myerscough, cello

History

The quartet was formed for a London String Quartet Foundation symposium, although Redington and Stone already knew each other having attended Pro Corda in Suffolk together as children. They gained early exposure after winning the Bristol Millennium Chamber Music Competition at the age of eighteen, which led to a residency at the

Wiltshire Music Centre Wiltshire Music Centre is a 300-seat concert hall in Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire, England which has been described as having "the finest acoustic outside London". The Centre puts on over 150 concerts a year including critically acclaimed artists s ...

. From 2002, the Doric studied with ProQuartet in Paris with the

Alban Berg Alban Maria Johannes Berg ( , ; 9 February 1885 – 24 December 1935) was an Austrian composer of the Second Viennese School. His compositional style combined Romantic lyricism with the twelve-tone technique. Although he left a relatively sma ...

, Artemis and LaSalle quartets, and, after separately attending music colleges, they came to the attention of the Young Concert Artists Trust in 2006, where they were advised by

Alasdair Tait Alasdair Tait is a Scottish cellist, teacher and artistic director who is the Chief Executive & Artistic Director of Young Classical Artists Trust. Tait previously recorded and toured with the Belcea Quartet, performed at music festivals, and ju ...

. Early concerts in the UK include at the Wigmore Hall in London in 2004. The quartet won first prize at the 2008 Osaka International Chamber Music Competition and second prize at the "

" International String Quartet Competition. The quartet toured Japan in the 2008–9 season, after winning the Osaka competition. Their American debut came in 2010, with concerts in New York and Washington, and they have since visited the USA annually. They first toured Australia in 2019. The Australian composer Brett Dean wrote his String Quartet No. 3, ''Hidden Agendas'', for the Doric. In 2010, the quartet premiered Peter Maxwell Davies's ''Blake Dreaming'' at the Wigmore Hall, with the baritone Roderick Williams; and in 2015 or 2016, they premiered Donnacha Dennehy's ''The Weather of It'', also at the Wigmore. They were conducted by John Adams in his '' Absolute Jest'' for String Quartet and Orchestra, a "staggeringly challenging" piece which makes "fearsome demands" on the quartet. After the lifting of the coronavirus lockdown in 2020, the quartet gave the first concert at the Wigmore Hall to have an in-house audience, with a programme of

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...

and Britten. In 2022, the Doric performed the complete set of Bartók quartets over three concerts on a single day at the Aldeburgh Festival;

Ivan Hewett Ivan Hewett is a British music critic and author who specializes in classical music. Since 2009 he has been the chief music critic for British newspaper ''The Daily Telegraph''. Hewett has a particular interest in contemporary classical music, ...

, in a '' Telegraph'' review, described the concerts as "wonderful because they simply revealed the music in all its rich humanity, and gave it a special intimate quality I'd never been aware of before." The Doric is Teaching Quartet in Association with the

(from 2015). In 2018 the quartet became artistic director of the

on the

Isle of Mull The Isle of Mull ( gd, An t-Eilean Muileach ) or just Mull (; gd, Muile, links=no ) is the second-largest island of the Inner Hebrides (after Skye) and lies off the west coast of Scotland in the Council areas of Scotland, council area of Arg ...

Repertoire and style

The quartet's main repertoire includes Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert and works by early romantic composers such as

and Schumann; 20th-century works particularly by Bartók, Janáček,

and Britten; and works by living composers such as Thomas Adès and Brett Dean. In 2016–17, the quartet began to use Classical (transitional-period) bows made by Luis Emilio Rodriguez Carrington for repertoire as late as Mendelssohn. Myerscough states that while the Classical bows generate a quieter sound and require more work from the player, they increase the clarity, responsiveness and range of articulation. Toby Deller, writing in '' The Strad'', characterises the Doric's work as having "clearly shaped phrasing, clean articulation, distinct voicing and uncannily immaculate ensemble playing". Charles T. Downey, in a concert review for the '' Washington Post'', praised the quartet's almost perfect cohesion, and highlighted their "knife-edged ... clean, almost strident sound", which he attributed to a lack of vibrato. Harriet Smith, in a recording review for ''

Gramophone A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

'' magazine, singled out the Doric's "ability to reveal detail, though never at the cost of broader spans" as well as "their elasticity of phrasing, combined with an absolute confidence of ensemble without ever seeming overly obsessed with it". Paul Driverby, writing in '' The Sunday Times'', described the Doric's playing as "flamboyant when called for, but not otherwise; vibrato sparing but beautiful; ensemble impeccable – a true togetherness." Richard Wigmore, reviewing their series of Haydn recordings for ''Gramophone'', describes them as "technically impeccable, commanding a wide palette of colour and dynamics" but states "they can be uncommonly free over tempo, occasionally to the point of mannerism." Philip Clark, in a review of Haydn for ''

Limelight Limelight (also known as Drummond light or calcium light)James R. Smith (2004). ''San Francisco's Lost Landmarks'', Quill Driver Books. is a type of stage lighting once used in theatres and music halls. An intense illumination is created when ...

'' magazine, notes that the quartet chooses not to deliver a traditional Classical performance but rather a "re-examination" of the works, writing that that they "splash around wideband dynamics and proto-expressionistic timbres with ... obvious abandon".

Recordings

The Doric's earliest disc was a live recording of Haydn, under the

Wigmore Hall Live In October 2005, the Wigmore Hall, London, England, became the first concert hall to launch its own record label: Wigmore Hall Live, building upon the venue's existing reputation as a recital hall established early in the 20th century. One of th ...

label, which was described in a ''Gramophone'' review as a "very auspicious recording debut". Since 2009 the quartet has recorded for the British label Chandos, starting with Korngold's quartets and including an ongoing cycle of Haydn quartets. In 2011, the Doric made the first recording of the original uncut first string quartet of William Walton. They made the second recording of Adams's ''Absolute Jest'' in 2017 and have recorded works by Dean, including his quintet with Dean on viola. In 2018, they recorded the complete Britten string quartets at Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh, for which Clément was loaned the composer's own viola, an 1843 Giussani, by the Britten–Pears Foundation. She describes the instrument as having a "wonderfully light quality", an "expressive A string" and an "extremely rich and full" tone, with a "bright quality". During its association with the Mendelssohn on Mull Festival, the quartet recorded Mendelssohn's six string quartets, as well as the composer's two quintets with the violist Timothy Ridout.

Discography

Sources: * Haydn: String Quartets Op. 9 No. 4, Op. 50 No. 1, Op. 76 No. 1 (

; 2009) * Korngold: The String Quartets ( Chandos; 2010) * Walton: String Quartets (Chandos; 2011) * Schumann: String Quartets, Op. 41 (Chandos; 2011) * Schubert: String Quartets "Rosamunde", "Death and the Maiden" (Chandos; 2012) * Korngold: String Sextet, Piano Quintet with

Jennifer Stumm Jennifer Stumm is a concert violist, professor of viola at the University of Music and Arts of the City of Vienna and director of the Ilumina Festival in São Paulo. Life Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Stumm studied at the Curtis Institute of ...

(viola), Bartholomew Lafollette (cello),

Kathryn Stott Kathryn Stott (born 10 December 1958)

(piano) (Chandos; 2012) * Chausson: Concert for Violin, Piano and String Quartet, String Quartet with Jennifer Pike (violin), Tom Poster (piano) (Chandos; 2013) * Haydn: String Quartets, Op. 20 (Chandos; 2014) * Janáček: String Quartet Nos 1, 2; Martinu: String Quartet No. 3 (Chandos; 2015) * Brett Dean: ''Epitaphs'', ''Eclipse'' (String Quartet No. 1), String Quartet No. 2, "And Once I Played Ophelia" with Brett Dean (viola), Allison Bell (soprano) (Chandos; 2015) * Haydn: String Quartets, Op. 76 (Chandos; 2016) * Elgar: Introduction and Allegro for String Quartet and String Orchestra with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by

Edward Gardner Edward Gardner may refer to: * Edward W. Gardner (1867–1932), American balkline and straight rail billiards champion * Edward Joseph Gardner (1898–1950), U.S. Representative from Ohio * Ed Gardner (1901–1963), American actor, director and wr ...

(Chandos; 2017) * Schubert: String Quartet in G major, String Quartet in C minor "Quartettsatz" (Chandos; 2017) * Bracing Change: Donnacha Dennehy: ''The Weather of It'' (with other works) ( NMC; 2017) * John Adams: ''Naive And Sentimental Music'', ''Absolute Jest'' with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Peter Oundjian (Chandos; 2018) * Haydn: String Quartets, Op. 64 (Chandos; 2018) * Mendelssohn: String Quartets in E Flat major, Op. 12, E Flat major, Op. 44 No. 3, F Minor, Op. 80 (Chandos; 2018) * Purcell: String Fantasias in Four Parts; Britten: String Quartets Nos 1–3, Three Divertimenti (Chandos; 2019) * Haydn: String Quartets, Op. 33 (Chandos; 2020) * Mendelssohn: String Quartets, No. 2, Op. 13, No. 3, Op. 44 No. 1, No. 4, Op. 44 No. 2 (Chandos; 2021) * Bax, Bliss, Delius, Finzi, Vaughan Williams: British Oboe Quintets with Nicholas Daniel (oboe, cor anglais) (Chandos; 2021) * Mozart: The Prussian Quartets (Chandos; 2021) * Mendelssohn: The String Quintets with Timothy Ridout (Chandos; 2022)

References

External links

Doric String Quartet's website
British string quartets 1998 establishments in the United Kingdom Musical groups established in 1998