Engegård Quartet

Brahms’s highly personal string quartet closes this concert, a piece known for its beautiful lyricism as well as its dramatic, forceful finale. Earlier you’ll hear Tailleferre’s Quartet, a piece that’s full of quirky charm, beautiful textures and musical colours, a real delight. The evening starts with the clean lines and gorgeous sonorities of Kvandal’s Quartet

Following their two previous successful visits to Music at Oxford, the Engegård Quartet return to once again delight Oxford audiences.

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About the Artist

Formed under the midnight sun in Lofoten in 2005, the Engegård Quartet has rapidly become one of Norway’s most sought after ensembles. Their bold, fresh interpretations of the classical repertoire combined with a deep attachment to their Scandinavian roots has attracted international acclaim, and inspired some innovative partnerships and programming.

The quartet’s debut CD was praised as ‘breathtaking’ in The Strad, while their second release won Pizzicato magazine’s ‘Supersonic Award’. Their CD of works by Grieg, Sibelius, and Olav Anton Thommessen was praised by Tully Potter in Music Web International as ‘what Grieg lovers have been waiting for’.

The Engegård Quartet has a busy concert schedule throughout Scandinavia and further afield. They have performed in some of Europe’s finest venues including the Mozarteum in Salzburg and Prague’s Rudolfinum, as well as performing in South America with concerts in Medellin, Bogotá and Sao Paolo. Festival performances include the Delft Chamber Music Festival, SoNoRo Festival in Bucharest, and Heidelberg’s Streichquartettfest.

Deeply committed to today’s composers and to keeping the string quartet repertoire alive and developing, the Engegård Quartet has commissioned several works throughout their career. They have focused first and foremost on Norwegian composers including Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje, Olav Anton Thommessen, Therese Birkelund Ulvo and Cecilie Ore, but also on the Finnish pianist and composer Olli Mustonen. The Engegård Quartet’s acclaimed collaborations with the jazz violinist Ola Kvernberg and hardanger fiddler Nils Økland and have lead to commissions including the Telemark Quintet from Nils Anders Mortensen, and Hypnagogia and Flukt from Ola Kvernberg. Several of these commissions have been recorded by the Engegård Quartet.

On the classical front, the Engegård Quartet has had the honour to work with (among others) Sir András Schiff, Leif Ove Andsnes, Christian Ihle Hadland, Paul Lewis, Dènes Várion, Nabuko Imai, Kim Kashkashian and Emma Johnson MBE.

The Engegård Quartet’s concert and recording programmes reflect their passion for the core quartet repertoire and their desire to discover and share new musical worlds. They have, or are in the process of, recording the complete string quartets by Robert Schumann, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and also the Norwegian composers Catharinus Elling and Johan Kvandal. You will find the Engegård Quartet’s recordings on 2L, BIS, Simax and LAWO CLASSICS. If you are streaming the Engegård Quartet, you’ll find them under The Engegård Quartet, Engegård Quartet and Engegårdkvartetten.

Members of the quartet are deeply involved in bringing superb chamber music to Norway – Arvid Engegård as Co-Founder and Artistic Director of the Lofoten International Chamber Music Festival, and several quartet members are deeply involved in the Oslo Quartet Series.

The Engegård Quartet’s own ‘1-2-3 Festival’ focuses on one composer over a long weekend, and has proved immensely popular ever since its inaugural year of 2016. Every November, in “Nynorskens hus” , right in the center of Oslo, this classical minifestival provides a feast of chamber music, song, piano works, and lectures. Read more on 123festival.no.

Arvid Engegård plays a Jean Baptiste Vuillaume violin (1858), on loan from Dextra. Laura Custodio Sabas plays a Jean Baptiste Vuillaume violin (1857). Juliet Jopling plays a Giuseppe Guadagnini viola (1770) and Jan Clemens Carlsen plays a Giacomo Zanoli cello (1737) on loan from Dextra.

The Engegård Quartet is supported by the Norwegian Arts Council.

Photo credit: Lars Bryngelsson