Heath Quartet
Ensemble:
Press
The Heath Quartet tackled the complete Beethoven string quartets in ten late-night concerts at Greyfriars Kirk, giving passionate performances that combined technical accomplishment with interpretative flair…The Heath players’ Quartet in D major op.18 no.3 ranged from joyful radiance to serene tranquility, with cellist Christopher Murray injecting just the right amount of spirit into the performance. Their Harp Quartet op.74 was stately and elegant, full of rustic charm and scurrying inner parts, delivered with character by second violin Cerys Jones and viola Gary Pomeroy, and they gave a clear-minded reading of op.135 in F major with a gleeful second movement and wonderfully restrained, glowing third.
The Strad / Complete Beethoven cycle at Greyfriars Kirk Edinburgh / November 2011
The Heath Quartet’s Beethoven cycle continues to be one of the most exciting things in Edinburgh this summer…Throughout the Heath Quartet confirmed their previous impression as fantastically talented musicians who aren’t intimidated by the breadth of these great works but approach them with freshness and winning energy. They deserve to go far.
www.seenandheard-international.com Greyfriars Church / Beethoven Cycle 25 August 2011
'The Heath Quartet contrasted the String Quartet in D, Op.18 No.3 with the later Harp Quartet, Op.74, in joyful, passionate playing that gripped from start to finish.'
The Edinburgh Reporter Greyfriars Church / Beethoven Cycle, August 2011
'The Heath Quartet are undoubtedly destined for a formidable future career.'
The Scotsman, Music at Paxton, July 2011
'One of the best it has been my privilege to attend: it was played [Bruckner String Quintet] with such intelligence and commitment.....a fantastic performance.'
The Bruckner Journal, Barbican / Heath Quartet with Adam Newman, March 2011
'Associate Artists of the Brighton Dome and Festival, the gifted young Heath Quartet treated a lunchtime concert audience to string quartet playing of the highest quality.'
Latest 7 The weekly magazine for Brighton, Hove & Sussex, Pavilion Theatre, May 2010
'It was a performance exceptional in its perception [Debussy], alive to every detail of a work at one time rather underrated but breathing from start to finish the Frenchness of French music.'
The Herald Queen's Hall Edinburgh, December 2009
'This was a very fine performance indeed, the long slow movement [Beethoven Op.132] finding these players as one, and at the top of their impressive form. This performance surely marks out the Heath Quartet as being one of the finest of their generation.'
Musical Opinion, Purcell Room, Nov-Dec 2008
'The Heath Quartet displayed a rare musicality... A keen interpretive insight combined with refined playing, this is one of the most interesting young quartets I have heard in recent years.'
The Strad Magazine, September 2007
'...the music's potency and bravura were conveyed with thrilling conviction.'
The Guardian, January 2007
The Heath Quartet is rapidly emerging as an exciting and original voice on the international chamber music scene. In 2011 they were awarded a prestigious Borletti-Buitoni Special Ensemble Scholarship.
The Heath Quartet is rapidly emerging as an exciting and original voice on the international chamber music scene. Selected for representation by YCAT in 2008 they immediately went on to win 1st Prize at the Tromp International Competition in Eindhoven and 2nd Prize at the Haydn International Competition in Vienna. In 2011 they were awarded a prestigious Borletti-Buitoni Special Ensemble Scholarship and in the same year undertook two complete Beethoven Quartet cycles at the Fàcyl Festival in Salamanca Spain and at Greyfriars Church in Edinburgh. The Quartet were presented with a Bank of Scotland Herald Angel Award after unanimous praise from The Herald’s music critics in Edinburgh.
Engagements this season include recitals at Wigmore Hall as part of the Emerging Talent scheme (supported by the Mayfield Valley Arts Trust), including the premiere of a new work by Luke Bedford and collaborations with Stephen Hough and Ian Bostridge. They make their debut at the Kissingen Winterzauber Festival in Germany, the deSingel Arts Centre in Antwerp as part of a Britten Day, return to the Netherlands and Banff, tour throughout Argentina and record their second CD of quartets by Janacek and Schulhoff. Future plans include a complete Tippett cycle at Wigmore Hall.
Over the last two years the Quartet has given recitals at major festivals and venues throughout Europe including Barbican, Bridgewater Hall, Sage Gateshead, Perth and Queen’s Hall Edinburgh, Musikverein, Konzerthaus and Esterhazy Palace (Vienna), Vara Konserthus (Sweden), the Schwetzinger and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festivals and BBC Radio 3 broadcasts from Birmingham Town Hall and Bath Festival. They have returned to Italy and the Netherlands (where they collaborated with the Tokyo Quartet and Colin Currie), were resident at the Brighton Dome and studied with Andras Schiff and Erich Hobart at IMS Prussia Cove. In 2010 they recorded their first CD at the Muziekcentrum Frits Philips and undertook a two week residency at The Banff Centre in Canada. Further afield they have given concerts in Shanghai.
The Heath Quartet was formed in 2002 at the Royal Northern College of Music, under the guidance of the late Dr. Christopher Rowland and Alasdair Tait, with whom they continued their studies at the Reina Sofia in Madrid. During their studies at the RNCM the Quartet won all the major ensemble prizes and were Leverhulme Junior Fellows between 2008-10. Other teachers have included Gabor Takacs-Nagy and members of the Alban Berg, Smetana, Endellion, Lindsay and La Salle Quartets. The Quartet are currently Senior Chamber Music Fellows at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, supported by the Fidelio Trust.
The Quartet has enjoyed working with several leading composers including Louis Andriessen, Sofia Gubaidulina, Anthony Gilbert and Hans Abrahamsen, the latter in a Radio 3 broadcast from the Proms. They took part in the European premiere of Steve Mackie’s ‘Gaggle and Flock’ for string octet, and received unanimous critical acclaim for their performance of Ligeti’s Quartet No.2 and Thomas Ades’ Arcadiana for The Park Lane Group at the Purcell Room.
Oliver Heath studied at the RNCM with Yossi Zivoni and Cerys Jones studied at the Juilliard School and RCM with Nicholas Kaplan and Gordan Nicolich. South African Gary Pomeroy studied with Mark Knight at the RNCM and Christopher Murray studied at the RNCM with Hannah Roberts and Gregor Horsch.