West Wight Arts Association

• Magnus Johnston (violin)
• Marije Ploemacher (violin)
• Simone van der Giessen (viola)
• Nathaniel Boyd ('cello)

In 2008 the Navarra Quartet won the Outstanding Young Artist Award at the MIDEM Classique Awards in Cannes. They were selected for representation by YCAT in 2006 and in 2007 received a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship.

Formed in 2002 at the Royal Northern College of Music under the guidance of the late Dr Christopher Rowland, and latterly as postgraduate students of the Alban Berg Quartet in Cologne, they are now Quartet in Association at the RNCM. The Quartet has won numerous prizes and awards, including Second Prize in the 2007 Melbourne International Competition and First Prize in the 2005 Florence International Competition. They have taken part in the International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove and during 2008 were resident quartet at the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh and at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland.

Over the last year the Quartet has given debut concerts at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Philharmonie in Luxembourg, Schwetzinger and Rheingau Festivals in Germany, the Aix-en-Provence and Bellerive Festivals in France, the Kattegat and Sandviken Festivals in Sweden and the City of London Festival. They took part in the Haydn series at Wigmore Hall broadcast by BBC Radio 3 and recorded a highly acclaimed disc of Haydn’s 7 Last Words for Altara Records, supported by the BBT.

Engagements during the 2009/10 season include return visits to Wigmore Hall, Aldburgh, the Bath, Brighton, Cambridge and Gower Festivals. They give a series of recitals in France as Laureates of the Aix-en-Provence Festival, concerts in Switzerland, Italy and the Netherlands and a tour throughout Australia. In 2010 the Quartet record their first CD for Challenge Records.

www.navarra.co.uk

APRIL 2010

‘…the players realize the music’s essential intensity….with their vivid sense of dramatic expression in an intensely detailed performance’.

BBC Music Magazine Haydn 7 Last Words/Altara Records September 2009

Mstislav Rostropovich

"You are the most wonderful group of musicians, you really touched my heart"

REVIEWS:

‘…the players realize the music’s essential intensity….with their vivid sense of dramatic expression in an intensely detailed performance’.

BBC Music Magazine Haydn 7 Last Words/Altara Records September 2009

“A rarity, on the other hand, was a performance in the basilica by the Navarra Quartet of Haydn’s string quartet in G op.33 No. 5 and Mozart’s noticeable reference (to it – Haydn’s piece), the quartet No.15 in d KV 421; performed impulsively and dynamically, but also with admirable filigree by the musicians…. the Navarra quartet unfolds the adorable setting in Haydns largo or Mozart’s andante with breathtaking tension into full bloom’.

Frankfurter Allegemeine Zeitung Rheingau Musik Festival July 2008

‘The Navarra Quartet brought some good humoured playing to Haydn’s Op.64 No.6….many magical moments in Thomas Ades Arcadiana….the Mendelssohn was outgoing and it’s Schnittke fearless.

The Strad Melbourne Competition December 2007

A Celebration of Imogen Holst ****

‘the afternoon recital by the hugely promising Navarra Quartet included two of her [Imogen Holst] works alongside Purcell’s Chacony and Schubert’s great C major Quintet’

The Guardian Aldeburgh October 2007

‘Moments of intuitive chamber work and cellist Nathaniel Boyd’s compelling melodic lines were signs of good things to come…Shostakovich’s marathon third quartet came to life in subtle shades of humour and gravity. The young anglo-dutch ensemble played with an uncanny wisdom and a good sense of timing.’

The Strad, January 2007 (Wigmore Hall, September 2006)

‘The outstanding quartet playing of the whole Fest was giving us by the Navarra Quartet. The group formed at the RNCM in September 2002 with three Dutch members and an English cellist. It was no surprise that they were multi-prize-winners at home and abroad, and had gained the RNCM’s professional performance diploma with distinction. Joined by pianist, Vyacheslav Sidorenko, their Sunday afternoon recital of Shostakovich’s Prelude and Fugue No. 15, Schnittke’s quartet No. 3, Shostakovich’s piano quintet and Shostakovich No. 3 was a truly remarkable experience. Totally at one with the music and each other, these talented young players are on their way to top acclaim in the chamber music world. By comparison the St Petersburg Quartet…though superb, did not play with such all-consuming believe.’

ESTA Magazine, January 2006 (Soviet-Festival Manchester, January 2006)

The Navarra Quartet opened the programme exactly a hundred years after Shostakovich’s birth with the composers eight quartet, a reading of much insight and dedication.

The Musical Opinion (Purcell Room, September 2006)