Contact
Maike Charlotte Fuchs+49 (0) 30 214 594 -220mf@karstenwitt.com
Heike Wilms+49 (0) 30 214 594 -236hw@karstenwitt.com
General Management
The Castalian String Quartet's debut CD, released at the end of April, has received rave reviews.
Joseph Haydn, Quartet in E flat major, Op. 20 no. 1
Jean Sibelius, String Quartet, Op. 56 'Voces intimae'
Franz Schubert, String Quartet No. 15 in G-Major D 887
Castalian String Quartet
Leoš Janáček, String Quartet No. 1 'Kreutzer sonata'
Charlotte Bray, Ungrievable Lives
Jean Sibelius, Streichquartett op. 56 'Voces intimae'
Benjamin Britten, String Quartet no.1
Sini Simonen - ViolinDaniel Roberts - ViolinRuth Gibson - ViolaChristopher Graves - Cello
…a feisty group, with a real personality and strong interpretative ideas. Ensemble and balance were always spot-on. The Guardian, 8/1/2020
The Castalian String Quartet’s interpretations are “so full of poetry, joy and sorrow, realised to such perfection”, marvelled The Observer. Founded in 2011, the British ensemble is taking the international chamber music scene by storm and inspires with their stylistic confidence and flawless technique, which allows them every artistic freedom. The quartet’s name is derived from the Castalian Spring in the ancient city of Delphi. According to Greek mythology, the nymph Castalia transformed herself into a fountain to evade Apollo’s pursuit, thus creating a source of poetic inspiration for all who drink from her waters.
The highly awarded Castalian String Quartet studied with Oliver Wille at the Hochschule für Musik in Hannover and shortly afterwards won the First Prize at the International Chamber Music Competition in Lyon in 2015. In 2016, the Quartet were selected by the Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT), and more recently were named recipients of the inaugural Merito String Quartet Award/Valentin Erben Prize and the prestigious Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship. In 2019, the ensemble was named “Young Artist of the Year” by the Royal Philharmonic Society in London and will be Hans Keller String Quartet in Residence at the University of Oxford from 2021 to 2024. In 2022, the Quartet premiered works by Charlotte Bray and Mark Simpson.
The Castalian String Quartet have made their debuts at such prestigious venues as New York's Carnegie Hall, Vienna's Konzerthaus and Amsterdam's Concertgebouw. In the 2019/20 season, they played a Brahms and Schumann cycle at London's Wigmore Hall, performing with renowned artists such as pianists Stephen Hough and Cédric Tiberghien and violist Nils Mönkemeyer. The musicians are also regular guests at festivals such as the Heidelberger Frühling, the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the Esbjerg International Chamber Music Festival in Denmark. To inspire a diverse audience for classical music, the Quartet take immense pleasure in performing for diverse audiences everywhere, from great concert halls to maximum security prisons and even a rainforest.
The Castalian String Quartet's discography includes recordings of Joseph Haydn's String Quartets op. 76, which the quartet recorded for the Wigmore Hall. They joined forces with the Zurich Merel Quartet for a highly acclaimed recording of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's String Octet. 2021 saw the release of the latest album Between Two Worlds on Delphi Records, combining works by Orlando di Lasso, Thomas Adès, Ludwig van Beethoven and John Dowland.
Season 2022/23
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“This outstanding disc offers listeners a true philosophical journey. Perceptively programmed, performed with rare beauty and originality by a quartet working at the height of its powers.”
BBC Music Magazine, Kate Wakeling, 26/5/2022 - on the new CD 'Between Two Worlds'
“The playing of the Castalian Quartet is consistently sensitive bright, focused, agile and devout.”
Gramophone, Rob Cowan, May 2022 - on the new CD 'Between Two Worlds'
"The 'Castalians' captivated with earthy dark timbres. With passion, they threw themselves into the despair of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's last quartet Op. 80 as well as into two movements from Jean Sibelius' "Voces intimae"... What an entertaining, stimulating, witty evening!"
Süddeutsche Zeitung, Harald Eggebrecht, 4/4/2022
“I was completely taken aback by the sheer sweetness of the tone from the Castalian Quartet in their concert of Beethoven’s first and Dvorak’s last string quartets. The sheer beauty of the playing, together with the uncannily clean resonance of the space, brought to life the music in all its grandeur and delicacy, with every instrument sounding clean and every phrase fresh.”
The Times, Simon Thompson, 5/7/2021
“…Castalians, unsurpassable among young quartets…there was never at any moment a single doubt about the expressive intent of the Castalian String Quartet, with its first violinist, the outstanding Sini Simonen, sending phrases up into the air and almost leaving them there before catching them on the way down.”
The Arts Desk, David Nice, 16/7/2021
"The European Ensemble are 'truly fused together as one'. They show an immense dedication to whatever music they perform, across a broad repertoire from Haydn to Thomas Adès."
BBC Music Magazine, January 2020
"...both beautiful and powerful. Janáček writes for four absolutely equal parts, and the score needs a quartet of the Castalian’s calibre to really work... A fabulous performance of great emotive force and profundity."
Seen and Heard International, April 2021
"They’re terrific: violinists who seem capable of anything, layering a gleaming finish (often the key to a really luminous quartet sound) on viola a player with a tone like crushed velvet and a cellist who sounds like old gold."
The Spectator-Richard Bratby/ Wigmore Hall / January 2020
"...rising stars in their field, the Castalian String Quartet…The Clarinet Quintet, a desert island choice for many of us, was given a desert island-worthy performance here…..To hear this music, so full of poetry, joy and sorrow, realised to such perfection, felt like a miracle."
The Observer, Fiona Maddocks, 11/1/2020
Brahms String Quartet No. 3 in b-flat
Britten String Quartet No. 2
Delphian, 2022, DCD34272