"The Piatti Quartet gave a delightfully soft-grained performance of Haydn’s Bird Quartet, and a hugely intense one of Beethoven’s Quartetto Serioso, with two contemporary pieces in between. Simon Holt’s Fourth Quartet Cloud House, here receiving its world premiere, conjured an imaginary walk through a real-life abandoned house on a Welsh mountain.”
“From soothing pastorale to euphoric rock anthem, this excellent album traces an intriguing path through modern British works for quartet …The Piatti Quartet are on ferociously fine form…”
Kate Wakeling, BBC Music Magazine, December 2018 (CD ‘Albion Refracted’)
The Piatti Quartet are one of the most distinguished quartets of their generation. Since their prizewinning performances at the 2015 Wigmore Hall String Quartet Competition, they have performed all over the world and made international broadcasts from many countries.
Recent seasons have included debuts at the Klara Radio Festival in Brussels, L’Orangerie Musée in Paris, the National Concert Hall in Dublin, Gaudi’s ‘La Pedrera’ in Barcelona, a residency in Aix-en-Provence and the Albert Long Hall in Istanbul. Next seasons include a debut at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam in November 2022, and returns to the Wigmore Hall and Aldeburgh Festival.
Michael Trainor - violin
Rebecca Chan - violin
Tetsuumi Nagata - viola
Jessie Ann Richardson - cello
The distinguished Piatti Quartet are widely renowned for their ‘acute sensitivity’ and their ‘lyrical warmth.’ Since their prizewinning performances at the 2015 Wigmore Hall String Quartet Competition, they have performed all over the world and made international broadcasts from many countries.
The Piattis are famed for their diverse programming and for passionate interpretations across the spectrum of quartet writing, tailoring their performances with the violinists regularly swapping parts to bring out extra nuances and colours in every work.
Since their inception they have always had projects in the recording studio with critically acclaimed releases through Linn, Somm, Champs Hill, and NMC record labels. New recordings with Hyperion and Nimbus have brought focus to their disrupted 2020/21 season. Looking ahead, they will form a new relationship with Delphian Records by recording the works of Mark-Anthony Turnage, including their commission of his 4th String Quartet, ‘Winter’s Edge.’
Sharing a stage with guests brings much joy to the quartet. Recent partnerships include Ian Bostridge, Nicky Spence, Michael Collins, Belcea Quartet, Janina Fialkowska, Melvin Tan, Julius Drake, Katherine Broderick and Adam Walker.
Recent seasons have included debuts at the Klara Radio Festival in Brussels, L’Orangerie Musée in Paris, the National Concert Hall in Dublin, Gaudi’s ‘La Pedrera’ in Barcelona, a residency in Aix-en-Provence and the Albert Long Hall in Istanbul. Next seasons include a debut at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam in November 2022, and returns to the Wigmore Hall and Aldeburgh Festival.
Passionate champions of contemporary music, they have made groundbreaking commissions with leading UK composers such as Joseph Phibbs, Emily Howard and Mark-Anthony Turnage, alongside many premieres with composers such as Simon Holt, Freya Waley-Cohen and Darren Bloom. A new recording of the chamber music of Gavin Higgins will be released in October 2021 with an Aldeburgh Festival premiere in 2022.
At the 2015 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition, the Piatti Quartet won 2nd Prize as well as the St.Lawrence SQ prize and the Sidney Griller Award for the best performance of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Contusion.
They regularly teach at Trinity Laban, Royal Academy of Music, and Purcell School while also doing outreach in primary schools through the Cavatina Music Trust.
The Piatti Quartet takes its name from the great 19th-century cellist Alfredo Piatti, who was a leading professor and exponent of chamber music at the Royal Academy of Music.
Programme I
Haydn: String Quartet in B minor, Op. 33 No. 1
Bartók: String Quartet No. 5, Sz 102
Beethoven: String Quartet in F major, Op. 59 No. 1
Programme II
Webern: Langsamer Satz
Ravel: String Quartet in F major
Dvořák: String Quartet No. 13 in G major, Op. 106
Programme III
Haydn: String Quartet in C major, Op. 76 No. 3
Phibbs: String Quartet No. 1
Brahms: String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor, Op. 51 No. 2
Programme IV
Haydn: String Quartet in G minor, Op. 74 No. 3
Mendelssohn: Four Pieces, Op. 81
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 13 in B flat major, Op. 130
Mozart: String Quartet No. 22 in B flat major, KV 589
Phibbs: String Quartet No. 1
Dvořák: String Quartet No. 13 in G, Op. 106
Programme VI
Dvořák: Cypresses (excerpts)
Piano Quintet No. 2 in A major, Op. 81
String Quartet No. 13 in G major, Op. 106
Ina Boyle - String Quartet in E Minor - III. Allegro molto
"... the performance of On Wenlock Edge which, in its thrilling assurance, strength of imagination and rapt instinct, inclines me to rank it alongside the very finest I know. I love the enviable hush and unruffled poise Julius Drake and the Piatti Quartet bring to the devastatingly moving ‘From far, from eve and morning’, the searing intensity of the climactic outburst in ‘Is my team ploughing’ – and what intoxicating languor and (in the central section) icy chill these accomplished performers evoke in ‘Bredon Hill’, its overwhelming peak (‘Oh, noisy bells, be dumb’) projected by Spence with arresting impact. How memorable, too, are the final pages of ‘Clun’ with its sublime vision of a world beyond this one."
Gramophone - Andrew Achenbach
Vaughan Williams - On Wenlock Edge - III. 3 Is My Team Ploughing
Gursky Landscapes: IV. Utah
Bridge: from Three Idylls for string quartet - III. Allegro con moto
Britten: from Three Divertimenti for string Quartet: : II. Waltz – Allegretto
Dvořák: String Quartet No. 13 in G major, Op. 106 - IV. Finale: Andante sostenuto - Allegro con fuoco
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