Medici String Quartet

Paul Robertson - First Violin Stephen Morris - Second Violin Ivo-Jan van der Werff - Viola Anthony Lewis - Cello The Medici String Quartet is widely regarded as one of Britain's foremost international ensembles, having appeared to critical acclaim in more than thirty-five countries across four continents with more than forty recordings to their credit. The Quartet was formed in 1971, while founder members Paul Robertson and Tony Lewis were studying at the Royal Academy of Music and they soon established a reputation for performing the repertoire of the early 20th Century and Czech masters (Ravel / Janacek). They gave their first concert at the Wigmore Hall, London, receiving outstanding reviews and soon afterwards, while still at the Academy became Quartet in Residence at York University and accepted an exclusive world contract with EMI. During their years at York they established an unrivalled reputation as the leading exponents of British contemporary music commissioning and premiering works by Elizabeth Lutyens, Richard Rodney Bennet, William Mathias, Dominic Muldowny, and Jean Jubert amongst others. More recently John Taverner composed his quartet Hidden Treasure for the Medici Quartet and they are currently touring Nigel Osborne's Quartet No.1 Medicinal Songs and Dances. They became famous for their appearances at the leading European Festivals notably with the late great Sir Clifford Curzon, with whom they performed most of the standard Quintet repertoire. During the later part of the 80's the Quartet spent five years devoted exclusively to performing and recording the complete Beethoven Quartet cycle. As a quartet, they have performed with other musicians in a variety of styles, for instance with Barbara Thompson (Saxophone), performing and recording arrangements of songs by Kurt Weil (available on Virgin Classics). Another recent project has been in collaboration with Indian classical master Wajahat Khan whose Quintet for String Quartet and Sarod they recently recorded for Koch. They were the resident quartet at Kingston University for over twenty years, where Paul Robertson is currently visiting Professor of Music and held a similar position at Lancaster University for seventeen years. They are presently the Resident Quartet at the University of Surrey, Guildford. The Medici have made numerous admired recordings and in 1992 launched the Medici Whitehall label to celebrate their 21st anniversary. Recordings included new versions of Mozart's "Haydn" Quartets, the Brahms Clarinet and Piano Quintets (with Jack Brymer and John Lill) and two 'Words and Music' recordings, "Mozart's Journey to Prague" and "Wood Magic". They broadcast regularly on radio and television and have made more than forty acclaimed recordings for EMI, Nimbus, Meridian, Whitehall and Hyperion, including a complete Beethoven Quartet cycle. Now under exclusive contract with Koch International their recording of the seldom heard Saint-Sans Quartets was released in Autumn 1997; forthcoming releases include albums of Haydn, Schubert and Wajahat Khan's Quintet for Sarod and String Quartet.