Press Releases

The Borletti-Buitoni Trust (BBT) is pleased to announce the forthcoming release of
Mendelssohn’s string quartets, recorded last year by the Consone Quartet with the support
of its BBT 2022 Fellowship award. The album is the first volume of a series of Mendelssohn’s
complete string quartets and marks the beginning of a recording partnership with Linn
Records.

This award-winning period quartet plays on gut strings to create a warm, velvety soundworld
and has drawn on inspiration from editions of the time to present fresh accounts of the E flat
major quartet ‘1823’ and Op. 44 No. 3. Their research includes scrupulously annotated parts
that belonged to violinist Ferdinand David of the Gewandhaus Quartet which premiered
many of Mendelssohn’s quartets. The pairing of these two works, the former an early work,
the latter the composer’s penultimate achievement in the genre, reveals comparisons
between styles at different points in the composer’s life.

The Consone players have been playing Mendelssohn’s quartets since they first came
together and launched their professional career as a quartet in 2015. This experience,
together with their intense research into the historical archives, brings even greater
commitment to their playing and clearly signals their deep love for Mendelssohn’s music.

The Consone Quartet appears in recital at Wigmore Hall on 12 March with a programme that
includes Mendelssohn’s Quartet Op. 44 No. 3 along with Haydn’s String Quartet in E flat Op.
33 No. 2 ‘The Joke’.

Buy tickets from Wigmore Hall

BBT has also supported the Consone Quartet in commissioning a new string sextet, The
Bridges of Königsberg, from Gavin Bryars (premiere performance date in 2023 to be
announced).

CONSONE QUARTET
Agata Daraškaitė violin
Magdalena Loth-Hill violin
Elitsa Bogdanova viola
George Ross cello

Consone Quartet website

• Formed at the Royal College of Music in London, the Consone Quartet launched its
  professional career in 2015
• Prizes and awards include 2015 York Early Music InternaUonal Young ArUsts CompeUUon,
  including the EUBO Development Trust Prize and a place on the EEEmerging Scheme in
  France. 2016 Royal Over-Seas League Ensemble Prize and 2022 Borle–Buitoni Trust (BBT)
  Fellowship Award
• Venues where the Quartet performs include London’s Wigmore Hall, King’s Place, St John’s
  Smith Square and St Martin-in-the-Fields, and at the Edinburgh, Cheltenham, Brighton, and
  Buxton Festivals. The English Haydn Festival and the Brighton and York Early Music Festivals
  have been loyal supporters are also regular hosts. Overseas engagements include Heidelberg
  String Quartet Festival, Philharmonie de Paris and Auditorium de Lyon, at the
  Concertgebouw Brugge, AMUZ and de Bijloke in Belgium, Concerts d’été à St Germain in
  Switzerland and at other venues across Italy, Austria, Bulgaria and Slovenia and south
  America and, most recently, a north American debut tour in February 2023
• Collaboration partners include Justin Taylor, Steven Devine, Alexander Gadjiev, Anneke
  Scott, Mary Bevan and Colin Lawson
• Music Education is a deep commitment, having worked with students at the Royal College of
  Music in London, Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester, the Royal Welsh College of
  Music and Drama and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, as Hans Keller fellows for
  2020-2022
• Projects in 2023 include the premiere of Gavin Bryars’ new string sextet, The Bridges of Könisgsburg, debuts at the Heidelberg String Quartet FesUval and Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Germany and tours to Belgium, Canada and Italy
• Recording debut explored music by Haydn and Mendelssohn on the Ambronay label and was
  described by The Strad as an album “that instantly leaps out of the stereo at you as
  something special.” Their label debut with Linn Records sees the release of the first volume
  of what will be the complete string quartets of Felix Mendelssohn and the beginning of their
  recording partnership