Formed in 1988, the Maggini Quartet is one of the world’s finest string quartets, performing at major festivals and concert halls throughout Europe, the United States and the Far East. The Quartet appears regularly in prestigious concert series at home and abroad, and are frequently broadcast. They have performed recently in France, Austria, Norway, Sweden and Italy, with a major tour of Denmark in autumn 2008.
Renowned for championing British composers, the Quartet won the Gramophone Chamber Music CD of the Year 2001 for the String Quartets and Phantasy Quintet of Vaughan Williams (8.555300), part of the Gramophone Award-winning Naxos series that has brought world-wide sales of more than 100,000 discs. The recording of Elgar’s String Quartet and Piano Quintet with Peter Donohoe (8.553737) was a 1997 winner of the Diapason d’Or, France’s most prestigious award for classical music recordings, and the release of the String Quartets and Trio by E.J. Moeran (8.554079) proved to be one of the best selling chamber music CDs of 1998. The Maggini has also recorded all the Britten string quartets for Naxos (8.553883 and 8.554360), winning praise from Diapason in France, while the second volume was an Editor’s Choice in Gramophone and in Classic CD. The recording of Walton’s String Quartet and Piano Quartet with Peter Donohoe (8.554646) was nominated for a Gramophone Award, as well as being an Editor’s Choice in Gramophone and the BBC Music Magazine, and the CD of Bax Quartets Nos. 1 and 2 (8.555282) won a 2002 Cannes Classical Award. The first CD of repertoire by Bliss (8.557108) was nominated for a Grammy Award 2004.
The Maggini Quartet has won similar praise for other recordings and has commissioned a number of works, including Robert Simpson’s last work, his Cello Quintet, first performed at the Cheltenham International Festival in 1996, a year which also saw the first performance of Olivia by Roxanna Panufnik, commissioned for the Maggini by Brunel University Arts Centre in London. The Maggini’s 10th Anniversary commission was James MacMillan’s Second Quartet, which received its world première at the Wigmore Hall in London in 1998, with subsequent performances in North America and Europe.
The Maggini Quartet has embarked on an exciting collaboration with Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, performing and recording his ten new Naxos Quartets. The Wigmore is hosting performances of all ten works, including six world premieres. Commissioned by Naxos, the works fulfil the composer’s long-held intention of bringing a major contribution to chamber music repertoire, and the project is providing a unique opportunity for performers and composer to work together over a five-year period. The first CD of Naxos Quartets Nos. 1 and 2 (8.557396) was an Editor’s Choice in Gramophone. Ten quartets have now been performed, including premieres at the Wigmore Hall, Cheltenham Festival, Oslo Chamber Music Festival and the Purcell Room. All have been received with outstanding acclaim by audiences and critics, as have the four CDs released so far.
The Quartet takes its name from the famous sixteenth-century Brescian violin-maker Giovanni Paolo Maggini, an example of whose work is played by David Angel.
For more information please visit the Maggini Quartet’s website.
