Photo: Sara Fanelli
Endellion String Quartet
Andrew Watkinson and
Ralph de Souza, violins
Garfield Jackson, viola
David Waterman, cello
Winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Best Chamber Ensemble
Formed in 1979, the Endellion String Quartet is renowned as one of the finest quartets in the world. Over the years, their schedule has included regular tours of North and South America and concerts in Australasia, the Far East, the Middle East, South Africa and every West European country. Everywhere, the Endellion String Quartet ‘sets the audience ablaze’ (Daily Telegraph) and captivates concertgoers with a remarkable rapport, ‘playing to each other with a sense almost of discovery, communicating to the audience on a level of unusual intimacy’ (The Guardian).
In Britain, the Endellion String Quartet has appeared at nearly all of the major series and festivals and is regularly broadcast on BBC radio and television. It gave the 25th anniversary concert of the first ever St John’s, Smith Square BBC lunchtime broadcast, repeating the original programme given by the Amadeus Quartet, it has appeared at the Proms, and it has been featured in the week-long programmes ‘Artist of the Week’ and ‘Artists in Focus’. Its presence in London has been marked by several series both at the South Bank and Wigmore Hall, where the Quartet were Artistic Directors of several ‘Quartet Plus’ series. They have worked with guest artists including members of the former Amadeus Quartet, Sir Thomas Allen, Joshua Bell, Michael Collins, Steven Isserlis, Mitsuko Uchida and Tabea Zimmerman.
The Endellions’ 1987 recording for EMI of the complete string chamber music of Britten was selected as Chamber Music Recording of the Year by both the Daily Telegraph and The Guardian, and was the most highly recommended version in Radio 3’s Record Review. Their Haydn Op 54 disc – the first of a series for Virgin Classics – was the only quartet record featured in Radio 3’s Critics’ Choice of Records of the Year. The Endellions have also recorded Mozart, Bartok, Dvorak, Foulds, Smetana, Walton, Bridge Schubert, Barber, Amy Beach and Tchaikovsky. In 1998 EMI released ‘Arcadiana’, the Endellion quartet’s commission from the young British composer Thomas Adès, a disc that subsequently received the ‘Editor’s Choice’ award in the 1998 Gramophone Awards.
The Endellion String Quartet has been Quartet in Residence at Cambridge University since October 1992, and undertook three short-term residencies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the USA. Since 2001 they have been Associate Quartet of the Royal Northern College of Music and they also have a spring residency at The Venue in Leeds.
The Endellions have given a cycle of all the Beethoven quartets at Wigmore Hall and many other venues and just after the completion of their 25th Anniversary year they began, in January 2005, to record the cycle for Warner Classics. This major project involves a total of nine CDs, two to be issued each year.
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2000) concludes that "The Endellion is arguably the finest quartet in Britain, playing with poise, true intonation, excellent balance and a beautiful tone. In music of the Viennese Classical composers it has few challengers but it has won praise in a wide repertory, its Beethoven and Bartók cycles being especially admired."
"It is not only the brilliance, intensity and coherence of their interpretation which engages and impresses the listener, but also their absolutely individual rhythmic, vibrant and thoughtful approach." Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Promoters please note: if you wish to include this biography in a concert programme etc, please contact Hazard Chase to ensure that you receive the most up to date version.
Email: Emily Good
