Top Romanian quartet joins Chichester series

The Arcadia Quartet are the guests of the Chichester Chamber Concerts series in the Assembly Room, Chichester Council House, North Street, Chichester on Thursday, February 22 at 7.30pm.
The Arcadia QuartetThe Arcadia Quartet
The Arcadia Quartet

Their programme will be Haydn – String Quartet in E major Op 33 No 2; Borodin – String Quartet No. 2 in D major; and Shostakovich – String Quartet No 8 in C minor Op 110.

Violinist Ana Török said: “We all met while being students of the Gheorghe Dima Music Acadamy of Cluj-Napoca (in Romania) and we all studied chamber music with Professor Nicușor Silaghi. Professor Silaghi had a vision about us playing quartet music, and our first goal as a quartet was to participate in the Mozart Competition of Cluj. Winning the competition really changed our perspective and we all realised this is the path we should follow.

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“After only a few weeks following our success at the Mozart Competition, we won a scholarship which awarded us three years of masterclasses with the Belcea Quartet. Back then in 2007, they just started a residency in Bucharest in partnership with the Romanian Cultural Institute who has been very supportive ever since with many of our projects.

“A few months later, we applied for the European Chamber Music Academy auditions, and we’ve been privileged to have constant tuition from Hatto Beyerle (ex-violist of Alban Berg Quartet) and Johannes Meissl (violinist of Artis Quartet) with whom we also studied one year of postgraduate course in Vienna.”

It all helps in a competitive world: “Winning competitions made a huge difference in our career, or in other words, brought us more visibility and agents to look after us. But one of the most important things was the time spent to prepare for those competitions which brought us closer to each other and allowed us to start to think and play the same way musically together.”

It is a question of standing out from the others.

“I think it is sincerity. We have been told many times that this is our particularity among other ensembles, that we always convey a certain feeling of sincerity mixed with profound emotions, secureness and a clear awareness of style. We’re all very different in personalities, and I think this is why it works so well

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“Our repertoire was always wide, from Haydn to music just composed, and it is the same today. At the very beginning, choosing repertoire was based on what we needed to prepare for competitions, but we always had commissions as well, and we also have our own projects and ideas which we want to realise. We do come to the UK quite often, especially after winning the Wigmore Hall London International Competition. It is an important territory for us and we always come with great pleasure to play concerts in the UK. There are many wonderful venues and many of them are re-inviting us, and I think this is one of the keys to a musician’s success – to build up a special rapport with audiences and receive the gift of a re-invitation.”

Tickets from the CFT

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