© Amancio Guillén

CUARTETO QUIROGA,

WINNER OF THE SPANISH NATIONALMUSIC AWARD 2018,PRESENTS NEW CD,

‘HERITAGE’

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A MUSICAL VISIT TO MADRID IN THE TIME OF GOYAIt is unusual for traditional musicology to mention Madrid as being particularly active in the consolidation of the string quartet as a genre. In fact, the quartet is generally consideredto be a Central European phenomenon, associated with the great Austrian composer Joseph Haydn and cultivated on the musical scene of cities like Vienna, or in northern Italy or Bohemia. But Madrid, especially during the last third of the 18th century, was one of placesin which European chamber music was at its most lively.

This is the cultural heritage to which Cuarteto Quiroga, winner of the Spanish National MusicAward 2018, has devoted their sixth album, Heritage. It includes the world’s first recording of the Quartet in B flat Major L.185 by Gaetano Brunetti and the Quartet in E flat Major G.191 by Luigi Boccherini. Alongside these first performances on CD are other works that haverarely been recorded such as the String Quartet in G Mayor op.3 no. 5 by Manuel Canales and theString Quartet in D Minor op.6 no.2 by Joao Pedro de Almeida, which make up the full programmeon the disc. Heritage, which will be released on the symbolic date of 2 May,1 is to be presentedon 14 May in the Prado Museum as part of the activities celebrating the museum’s bicentenary.

The quartet formed by Aitor Hevia (violin), Cibrán Sierra (violin), Josep Puchades (viola) and Helena Poggio (violoncello) aims, with Heritage, to give the string quartet its rightful placeamong the many arts that flourished around the Court in which Francisco de Goya worked as official Chamber painter for the royal family. Artists such as Boccherini, Brunetti, Canalesand Almeida, among many others, left an extensive and creative catalogue which, in the wordsof Cibrán Sierra, “has, unfortunately and unfairly, remained in oblivion and has been treated with a degree of disdain by performers, programmers, critics and musicologists”. 1 Date of the uprising against the French occupation of Madrid, which was subsequently portrayed by Goya.

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Now, part of that production hasfound a place in this exquisiteanthology conceived by CuartetoQuiroga, one of the mostaudacious and refreshing groups of its generation, which has basedits work on historically-informedperformance criteria. As in theirrecent productions, in this newwork Cuarteto Quiroga aims tocontextualise and find an audiencefor this infrequently-heardmusical heritage, and continues to advocate the capacity forcommunication and the socialimportance of chamber music.

In the introduction to the disc, musicologist Miguel Ángel Marín states that Goya andBoccherini worked together between 1783 and 1784 in the service of the Infante Don Luis.Under his patronage, Boccherini composed his Quartet in E flat Major G.191 included in Heritage.The Quartet in B flat Major L.185 by Brunetti was composed, according to his biographer, “for the amusement of his Catholic Majesty Charles IV”.

25 quartets by Joao Pedro de Almeida have been preserved, and everything indicates that they were also composed for the royal Court. The work chosen for this recording comes fromthe archives of the Royal Palace in Madrid. Canales composed his Quartet in G Major op.3 no.5 for the 12th Duke of Alba, Fernando de Silva. Like the works of Boccherini, which crossed thefrontier to be published in Paris, those by Canales were printed in London.

Marín states, “The careers of Goya, Boccherini, Brunetti, Almeida and Canales, all of whom were bornbetween 1743 and 1747, were interlinked (...). They were like craftsmen for the Chamber: in the privacy of the family quarters, Goya portrayed his patrons while the composers entertained them. (...) The portraitwas to painting what the quartet is to music; genres practised in privacy that gave an exclusive position to whoever commissioned them”.

With this outstanding material, Heritage reveals the rich and varied repertoire of this genre in the Madrid of the 18th century through four masters who not only carried on the variouscompositional traditions that were being forged on the European scene but also tried to find a language of their own that offered both originality and experimentation. “This repertoireis of capital importance for understanding as a whole the birth and expansion of one of the most importantgenres of the musical heritage that we as Europeans consider ours”, adds Sierra.

The publication of Heritage comes as the finishing touch to months of hectic activity forCuarteto Quiroga, during which they shared an international tour with the legendary pianistMartha Argerich, participated in world premieres and also offered numerous concerts in Spain and Europe and a tour of the United States.

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CUARTETO QUIROGACuarteto Quiroga, Spanish National Music Award 2018, quartet-in-residence at Madrid’sCerralbo Museum and for years ensemble in residence at the Royal Collection of decoratedStradivarius instruments at Madrid’s Royal Palace, has established itself as one of the mostdynamic and unique quartets of its generation. The quartet has won international acclaimfrom critics and audiences alike for its distinctive personality as well as its bold and originalapproach to the string quartet repertoire. The group takes its name from the Galician violinistManuel Quiroga, one of the most outstanding string players in Spanish music history togetherwith Pau Casals and Pablo Sarasate.

Since its founding, Cuarteto Quiroga has studied with Professor Rainer Schmidt at the EscuelaSuperior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid and the ProQuartet-CEMC, Prof. Walter Levin atthe Musikakademie der Stadt Basel, and Prof. Hatto Beyerle at the European Chamber MusicAcademy. The quartet has also been strongly influenced by György Kurtág, Ferenc Rados,András Keller, Johannes Meissl and Eberhard Feltz.

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Prizewinners of several major international string quartet competitions (Bordeaux, Paolo Borciani,Genève, Beijing, Fnapec-Paris, Palau Barcelona), the ensemble was awarded the Spanish NationalRadio Culture Prize (Premio Ojo Crítico) in 2007, regularly appears at main halls and festivals inEurope and the Americas (Wigmore Hall London, Philarmonie & Konzerthaus Berlin, Les InvalidesParis, Concertgebouw & Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, Mozarteum Salzburg, Auditorio NacionalMadrid, Heidelberger Frühling, Palau de la Musica Catalana, Konserthuset Stockholm, StadtcasinoBasel, Martinu Hall Prague, Gulbenkian Lisboa, Frick Collection & Lincoln Center New York,National Gallery Washington DC, etc.) and their concerts have been recorded and broadcast byRNE, SWR-2, WDR, Swedish Radio P2, BBC-3, FranceMusique, RAI and Mezzo TV.

Firmly committed to the interpretation of the music of our time, the group has been the first ever toperform live the complete works for string quartet by György Kurtág, and regularly premieres worksby composers such as Peter Eötvös, Cristóbal Halffter, Antón García-Abril, Jesús Villa-Rojo or JoseMaría Sánchez-Verdú, among others. Frequent chamber music partners include world renownedartists Martha Argerich, Javier Perianes, Jörg Widmann, Veronika Hagen, Valentin Erben, JonathanBrown, Richard Lester, Vladimir Mendelssohn, Alain Meunier, David Kadouch, choreographerHideto Hesiki or actor Jose Luis Gómez.

Their discography has been praised by the international press and has received multiple awards.Their debut CD, “Statements” (Cobra) was awarded the prize for “Best classical music album 2012′′by the Spanish Independent Producers. Their following three albums published as well by CobraRecords –“(R)evolutions”, dedicated to the early works of the Second Viennese School, “Frei AberEinsam” featuring the Opus 51 string quartets by Johannes Brahms, and “Terra” presenting works by Bartók, Halffter & GInastera– plus their collaboration with pianist Javier Perianes for HarmoniaMundi –including Granados and Turina’s piano quintets– have been praised and awardeddistinctions from magazines such as Scherzo, Ritmo & Melómano (Spain), The Strad, Gramophone& BBC Music Magazine (UK), Pizzicato (Luxembourg), Luister (The Netherlands) and radiobroadcasting corporations such as Radio France (Recommended CD), NDR-Deutschland (CD of the year), Klara Belgium (CD of the month) or the ICMA ( finalist 2017).

Strongly committed to chamber music education, its four members teach at the InternationalSummer Academy of Llanes (Asturias, Spain) and hold the String Quartet Chair at theConservatorio Superior de Música de Aragón (Zaragoza, Spain). As a corollary to their pedagogicdedication, they often get invited to give masterclasses and courses at several major Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, North American and Latin American festivals, universities and conservatoires, as well as ProQuartet-Paris and the Spanish National Youth Orchestra (JONDE).

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DISCOGRAPHY

STATEMENTS (Haydn, Webern, Sollima)Cobra Records 2012https://cobrarecords.com/catalogue/COBRA0035-Statements/

(R)EVOLUTIONS (Schönberg, Webern, Berg)Cobra Records 2013https://cobrarecords.com/catalogue/COBRA0037-REvolutions/

FREI ABER EINSAM (Brahms)Cobra Records 2015https://cobrarecords.com/catalogue/COBRA0048-FREI-ABER-EINSAM/

PIANO QUINTETS (Granados, Turina, with Javier Perianes, piano)Harmonia Mundi 2015http://www.harmoniamundi.com/#!/albums/2131

TERRA (Bartók, Halffter, Ginastera)Cobra Records 2017https://cobrarecords.com/catalogue/COBRA0059-Terra/

HERITAGE (Boccherini, Brunetti, Canales, Almeida)Cobra Records 2019https://cobrarecords.com/catalogue/COBRA0067-Heritage/

LISTEN TO CUARTETO QUIROGA

ITUNES https://itunes.apple.com/es/artist/cuarteto-quiroga/533566517SPOTIFY https://open.spotify.com/artist/1UjxMDgsQffk12uwCHddrJGOOGLE PLAY https://play.google.com/store/music/artist?id=Ajdtyqvixsavtkay44wedybksju

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HERITAGELabel: COBRA RECORDSRelease date: 2 May 2019

Luigi Boccherini: String quartet op.24, nº3, G.191, in E flat Major-Allegro moderato-Adagio non tanto -Minuetto

Manuel Canales: String quartet op.3, n°5, in G Major-Allegro Maestoso-Minuet-Largo sostenuto-Presto

Joao Pedro de Almeida Mota: String quartet op.6, nº2, in D Minor-Allegro-Largo-Allegretto-Minuetto (Allegro)-Finale

Gaetano Brunetti: String quarter L.185, in B flat Major-Allegro moderato-Largo amoroso-Prestissimo

LISTEN TO HERITAGE: THE MUSIC OF MADRID IN TIME OF GOYA

SPOTIFY https://open.spotify.com/album/3JGAweF7f00ljLGTf4bX10ITUNES https://itunes.apple.com/es/album/heritage-the-music-of-madrid-in-the-time-of-goya-full-album/1459747236GOOGLE PLAY https://play.google.com/store/music/album/Cuarteto_Quiroga_Heritage_The_Music_of_Madrid_in_t?id=Badox2dwmip4cc3aod5jduil4weDEEZER https://www.deezer.com/nl/album/93583802

MIEMBROS DEL CUARTETO QUIROGA

Aitor Hevia violinCibrán Sierra violinJosep Puchades violaHelena Poggio violoncello

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CUARTETO QUIROGA IN THE PRESS

“Exquisite: precise, perfectly balanced, interpretively fresh performances, couched in consistently warm hues.” – The New York Times –

“A beautiful tone combined with an unblemished technique [...] The sound quality and balance between instrumentsis admirable [...] every detail in the score is faithfully reproduced.” – The Strad –

„The Cuarteto Quiroga has turned into the champion of Spain’s chamber music among the new generation ofperformers. They are a beacon for musicians developing their careers in the 21st century.“ – El País –

“They achieve a perfect consensus, produce meticulous recordings – six to date, offer concerts in various formats and have consolidated their name internationally on stages on which they perform regularly, such as Wigmore Hallin London, the Philharmonie in Berlin, the Frick Collection and Lincoln Center in New York, Les Invalides in Paris,the Auditorio Nacional de Madrid and the German Heidelberger Frühling, among others.” – El País –

„The Cuarteto Quiroga showed to be an artist of sound of the most sophisticated and impressive class (...). One canrarely hear a Haydn quartet played the way this extraordinary ensemble does, so easily light and elegant, also invirtuoso moments.“ – Rhein-Neckar Zeitung –

„An amazing gift (…) these performers demonstrated breathtaking intonation and kept the texture exceptionallyclear and transparent in the passages of this highly complex polyphony (…) Cuarteto Quiroga impresses with itsbeautifully balanced ensemble playing, their amazing attention to detail and a breadth of understanding of both the structure of each piece and also their own place in the history of the string quartet.“ – Península Reviews –

PRESS CONTACT: Vera Zatopkova zatopkova@gmail.com 649 044 625http://cuartetoquiroga.com/https://www.youtube.com/user/CuartetoQuiroga

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