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“
Castalian String Quartet
György Kurtág, Six Moments Musicaux Op. 44
Franz Schubert, String Quintet in C major D 956
Tim Posner, violoncello
Johannes Brahms, Sonata for viola and piano in E flat, Op. 120/2
Johannes Brahms, Cello Sonata in D major Op. 78 (arr. from Violin Sonata)
Johannes Brahms, String Sextet No. 2 in G major, Op. 36
Timothy Ridout, viola
Zlatomir Fung, violoncello
Angela Cheng, piano
Benjamin Hochman, piano
Johannes Brahms, 16 Waltzes, Op. 39
Johannes Brahms, String Sextet No.1 in B-flat major, Op. 18
Johannes Brahms, Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34
Joseph Haydn, String Quartet in G minor, Op. 20 No. 3
Mark-Anthony Turnage, Awake
Franz Schubert, String Quartet No. 15 in G major D 887
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, 5 Fantasiestücke Op. 5
Ludwig van Beethoven, String Quartet No. 11 in F minor, Op. 95 "serioso"
Charlotte Bray, Ungrievable Lives
Orlando di Lasso, La nuit froide et sombre
John Dowland, Come, heavy sleep
Ludwig van Beethoven, String quartet No. 12 in E flat major op. 127
Francesco Antonioni, New work for string quartet inspired by Egyptian traditions
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
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