NARRATIO QUARTET
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Saturday 16 November 2024Doors: 3pm
Concert: 4pm (duration 90min, with interval) Tickets: £35, £30 Early bird (purch before 16 Oct 2024), £20 Concessions (under 18, full-time students and income support. |
Photo by Marten Root
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The Narratio Quartet, based in the Netherlands, are specialists in the historically informed performance of Beethoven Quartets. Having just finished recording the entire cycle of 17 quartets, they are presenting Op.59/3 in this concert, one of the most joyful and life affirming of his pieces.
They start the concert with Schubert’s Rosamunde Quartet, a lyrical and delicate piece tinged with sadness. |
ProgrammeF. Schubert
String Quartet No.13 Rosamunde - interval - L. v. Beethoven String Quartet Op.59/3 |
"…the Narratios have for me captured the youthful essence and spirit of the six quartets to as near ideal an extent as can be humanly expected.…" - Early Music (Brian Robbins), July 2024
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Narratio Quartet |
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The narrative of the Amsterdam-based Narratio Quartet began in 2009 when it was invited to perform Beethoven's last five string quartets on five consecutive nights at the Early Music Festival Utrecht. It is precisely these late Beethoven quartets which are rarely played on period instruments, using gut strings and 19th-century bows.
Since then the quartet has worked backwards, as it were; it has now played the complete cycle of Beethoven quartets several times in the Netherlands and recently also in Switzerland, and have just finished recording the entire cycle. The name “Narratio” refers to the art of rhetoric and illustrates the quartet’s focus on storytelling and interaction between the musicians and also between the quartet and the audience. Their repertoire has expanded to the later 19th century with Brahms, Schubert, Schumann and Mendelssohn. |
Photo by Marten Root
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Johannes Leertouwer
violin: Antonius et Hieronymus Fr. Amati, Cremona 1619
bow: collaboration John Dodd and Thomas Tubbs, ca 1820
bow: collaboration John Dodd and Thomas Tubbs, ca 1820
Johannes Leertouwer performs as a soloist, chamber music player and conductor. For many years he was concertmaster of Anima Eterna and the Netherlands Bach Society. He is artistic director and conductor of the Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht and violinist of Ensemble Schönbrunn since its foundation. He is a professor of Historically Informed Performance Practice at Seoul National University and works as a guest conductor and chamber music coach at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. He obtained his doctorate in 2023 from the University of Leiden on research into the performance practice of orchestral repertoire by Johannes Brahms.
Franc Polman
violin: Hendrik Jacobs, Amsterdam 1694
bow: John Dodd, London ca. 1800
bow: John Dodd, London ca. 1800
Franc Polman is a violinist in the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century and has played in prestigious baroque orchestras such as Musica Antiqua Köln and Les Musiciens du Louvre. He is active in several chamber music ensembles. Polman plays on a number of Amsterdam violins from the seventeenth century, built by Hendrik Jacobs and Pieter Rombouts.
Dorothea Vogel
viola: Ludovico Rastelli, Genoa, ca. 1800
bow: classical, Luis Emilio Rodríguez Carrington 2023
bow: classical, Luis Emilio Rodríguez Carrington 2023
Dorothea Vogel studied in Switzerland, the USA and London, where she has lived since her studies. She was violist of the Allegri Quartet for 20 years and is a member of the Primrose Piano Quartet. She also performs with the English baroque ensemble The Kings Consort. Dorothea teaches at the Royal Welsh College in Cardiff.
Viola de Hoog
cello: Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, Milan ca. 1750, on loan from the Dutch Musical Instruments Foundation
bow: classical, Luis Emilio Rodríguez Carrington 2006
bow: classical, Luis Emilio Rodríguez Carrington 2006
Viola de Hoog is a versatile musician. Her international career takes place in the world of early music, but for 20 years she also travelled all over the world as a member of the renowned Dutch Schönberg Quartet. She is cellist of Ensemble Schönbrunn, principal cellist of the Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht and The Kings Consort. Viola has been professor of baroque cello, cello and chamber music at the conservatories of Amsterdam, Utrecht and Bremen since 1990.