Contact
Maike Charlotte Fuchs+49 (0) 30 214 594 -220mf@karstenwitt.com
Heike Wilms+49 (0) 30 214 594 -236hw@karstenwitt.com
General Management
For a recording now released on the Signum Classics label, the Castalian String Quartet has recorded the string quartet by the British composer Brian Elias.
The Castalian String Quartet's debut CD, released at the end of April, has received rave reviews.
Franz Schubert, String Quartet No. 13 in A minor, Op. 29 D 804 "Rosamunde“
György Kurtág, Six Moments Musicaux Op. 44
Ludwig van Beethoven, String quartet No. 9 in C major op. 59 no. 3
Castalian String Quartet
Thomas Adès, Arcadiana, Op. 12
Ludwig van Beethoven, String quartet No. 12 in E flat major op. 127
Hildegardvon Bingen, Three Antiphons
Joseph Haydn, String Quartet in G minor, Op. 20 No. 3
Orlando di Lasso, La nuit froide et sombre
John Dowland, Come, heavy sleep
Franz Schubert, String Quartet No. 15 in G major D 887
Franz Schubert, Quartettsatz in C minor, D703
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, 5 Fantasiestücke Op. 5
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, String quintet in C minor KV 515
Simon Rowland-Jones, viola
Sini Simonen, violinDaniel Roberts, violinNatalie Loughran, violaSteffan Morris, cello
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
The Castalian String Quartet is taking the international chamber music scene by storm. Gaining renown for interpretations “full of poetry, joy and sorrow, realised to such perfection” (The Observer), they are the first Hans Keller String Quartet in Residence at the University of Oxford and were named Young Artist of the Year at the 2019 Royal Philharmonic Society Awards. In August 2023, they premiered Mark-Anthony Turnage’s new string quartet Awake at the Edinburgh International Festival, followed by the Belgian and Netherlands premieres at de Singel Antwerp and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam.
Formed in 2011, the quartet studied with Oliver Wille at the Hochschule für Musik, Hannover, before being selected by the Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) in 2016. They were awarded First Prize at the 2015 Lyon International Chamber Music Competition and in 2018 were recipients of the inaugural Merito String Quartet Award and Valentin Erben Prize, and a prestigious Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship.
Recent debuts include New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie, Vienna Konzerthaus, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie and Paris Philharmonie. In 2018, they recorded Haydn’s Op.76 quartets for the Wigmore Live label and were joined by pianists Stephen Hough and Cédric Tiberghien, violist Isabel Charisius and clarinettist Michaels Collins for a Brahms and Schumann series in the 2019-20 season. The last two seasons at Wigmore Hall had a focus on the quartets by Benjamin Britten and Bela Bartok, the current season will feature late quartets by Schubert. The quartet often appears at festivals such as Spoleto USA, Aldeburgh, North Norfolk, Cheltenham, East Neuk, Lockenhaus, Kuhmo and Heidelberger Frühling. Recent and upcoming premieres include works by Charlotte Bray, Edmund Finnis, Mark Simpson, Simon Rowland-Jones and Francesco Antonioni. In the 2024/25 season, the Castalian String Quartet will make its debuts at Konzerthaus Berlin, Concertgebouw Bruges and in the chamber music cycles of Unione musicale Turin and Helsinki Seriös amongst others.
The Castalian String Quartet’s 2022 release Between Two Words (Delphian Records), presenting music by Orlando di Lasso, Thomas Adès, Ludwig van Beethoven and John Dowland, was given a double five-star review as BBC Music Magazine’s Album of the Month: “this outstanding disc offers listeners a true philosophical journey…a series of intricately connected works, each performed with rare beauty and originality by a quartet at the height of its powers…[the Heiliger Dankgesang from Beethoven Op. 132] is nothing short of a revelation in its lucidity of line and sheer beauty of sound.” Eleanor Alberga’s Tower with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Thomas Kemp was released in May 2024 on Resonus Classics.
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. Committed to inspiring a diverse audience for classical music, the Castalians have performed everywhere from the great concert halls to maximum security prisons and even the Colombian rainforest. When not on stage, Finnish first violinist Sini Simonen bags Munros, American violist Natalie Loughran mixes mean cocktails and the Welshmen, second violinist Daniel Roberts and cellist Steffan Morris, get overly emotional about rugby.
2024/25 season
This biography is to be reproduced without any changes, omissions, or additions, unless expressly authorised by the artist management.
IJ. Haydn: String Quartet G minor, Op. 20 No. 3 Hob III:33 Thomas Adès: Arcadiana F. Schubert: String Quartet No. 14 D minor D 810 "Death and the Maiden" IIF. Schubert: String Quartet A minor D 804, Op. 29 "Rosamunde" G. Kurtág: 6 Moments Musicaux, Op. 44 Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Fantasiestücke, Op. 5 L. v. Beethoven: String Quartet F minor, Op. 95 No. 11 "Serioso" IIIF. Schubert: Quartettsatz D 703 A. Berg: String Quartet, Op. 3L. v. Beethoven: String Quartet C major, Op. 59 No. 3
(for the season of 2024/25)
"This energetic young quartet played dark, searching Mozart and gloriously textured Dvorak, with sensational breadth and beauty."
The Times, Simon Thompson, 3/7/2023
“The Castalians performed Saariaho’s Terra Memoria with the same intensity they brought to Schubert’s enormous String Quartet D 887 and with complete technical and musical command over complex materials.”
San Francisco Classical Voice, Lisa Hirsch, 21/3/2023
“Resonant, magisterial, thrilling. A vintage concert.“
The Arts Desk, David Nice, 26/1/2023
“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
Haydn: String Quartet in D major, Op. 20 No. 4, Wigmore Hall, 27/4/2023
Dvořák: String Quartet in G major, Op. 106, II Adagio ma non troppo, Wigmore Hall, 27/4/2023
Dvořák: String Quartet in G major, Op. 106, - IV Finale: Andante sostenuto - Allegro con fuoco, Wigmore Hall, 27/4/2023
Castalian String Quartet et al.
Signum Classics, 2024, SIGCD788
Castalian String Quartet, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Thomas Kemp
Resonus Classics, 2024, RES10340
Delphian, 2022, DCD34272