Young Quartets
Years ago, back in the 1950’s it was somehow stylish to refer to young American pianists in the Press as “YAP ’s”. Today, I am writing about YAQ’s: Young American Quartets.
Years ago, there were a few string quartets that were well-known: the Budapest String Quartet, the Guarneri String Quartet, the Juilliard Quartet, and the Tokyo String Quartet are some examples.
Now years have past; and there is a crop of new, young groups that are emerging into the music scene all over the world:
Examples are: the Endellion Quartet, the Spektral Quartet and the Eclipse Quartet.
And there are a lot of other younger string quartets:
The Catalyst, the JACK, the Danish, the Momenta, and the Tesla, as well as the Calder, and the Zaïde. Check them out at their respective sites. (Tesla photo, top left; photo of JACK string quartet is second from the top)
I’ll tell you more about just one of these groups, the TESLA Quartet:
As you can determine from the videos below, the Tesla Quartet plays beautifully. They are confident, sensitive, and highly musical in their playing.
The TESLA Quartet is the winner of the Gold Medal at the 2012 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and Third Prize in the 2012 London International String Quartet Competition.
The Tesla Quartet was formed at The Juilliard School in 2008 and quickly established itself as one of the most promising young ensembles in New York, winning Second Prize at the J.C. Arriaga Chamber Music Competition only a few months after its inception.
The London Evening Standard called their performance of the Debussy Quartet “a subtly coloured performance that balanced confidently between intimacy and extraversion.”
Here is Haydn’s String Quartet in G, Op.76 No.1 – I. Allegro con spirito as played by the Tesla Quartet:
http://youtu.be/sofvBr76reA
And here’s one more: Tesla Quartet plays Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” quartet, the third movement: Scherzo
http://youtu.be/4Tc6G1lLGW0
Tags: Young American Quartets, Tesla Quartet