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The three concerts in the opening festival will take place on 25th to 27th May 2012. The venues are in the delightful Regency intimacy of Swaffham Assembly Rooms, at Clermont House, and in the Chapel of Oxburgh Hall, and ticket prices include entry to the stunning private gardens of Clermont House and Oxburgh Hall. Audiences can choose to attend any of the concerts, or purchase a festival pass to attend all three. Friday 25th May at 7.30: the Magginis will give a concert at Clermont House, with a programme of Mozart, Ireland (kindly supported by the John Ireland Trust and Mendelssohn. Saturday 26th May at 7.30: the Magginis will play Mendelssohn and Haydn, followed by Mozart's Clariniet Quintet with celebrated clarinettist Michael Collins, in Swaffham Assembly Rooms. Sunday 27th May at 11.30: a concert works by Haydn, Schubert and Mendelssohn at Oxburgh Hall. This exciting new venture aims to bring musicians of the highest calibre to the community and concerts will reflect the full range of the Maggini's eclectic repertoire. For further information about the concerts or the forthcoming festival, please contact mqfundmanager@gmail.com or call 020 7262 4473 The Maggini Quartet visited Dubai in February 2012. In addition to a concert in the prestigious Master Series for the Dubai Concert Committee they gave workshops and concerts featuring the première of a piece by the Dubai-based composer Joanna Marsh. The Maggini Quartet return to Norway every summer for their annual concert and coaching visit organised by the Norwegian Chamber Music Society. Their time is divided between Nansenskolen, near Lillehammer, and Sund folkehogskole, near Trondheim. The Strad magazine published a major article on the Maggini's visit in the December issue Download The Magginis have recently performed in Spain, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Future European visits include a major tour of Germany in 2013. The Magginis will commence their new collaboration with Meridian Records by recording the complete Mendelssohn quartets. The first CD, to be recorded in spring 2012, will include Op.44 No.2 and Op.80. The Magginis will be recording another CD of repertoire by Ronald Corp featuring the Clarinet Quintet with LSO principal clarinettist Andrew Marriner.
The Maggini Quartet are renowned for their authoritative interpretations of English chamber music. Their ongoing series of concerts and recordings for Naxos, 'The Glory of the English String Quartet', celebrates the rich and diverse English string quartet repertoire, much of which has sadly fallen into neglect over the last century. Using their unparalleled experience in this repertoire, the Maggini Quartet offer carefully devised all-English or mixed programmes of classical quartets alongside English works to suit every occasion and venue. John Ireland Sextet Following the success of their tour of Northern England last year, the Magginis have again been joined by Robert Plane (clarinet) and Stephen Sterling (horn) for a performance of John Ireland's magnificient Sextet. On Saturday 17 March 2012 it featured in a concert for the Norfolk and Norwich Chamber Music series at the John Innes Centre in Norwich More information . The concert was generously supported by the John Ireland Trust Celebrating Frank Bridge at Turner Sims Concert Hall, Southampton The Quartet have been programming Frank Bridge again, a composer the players greatly admire and whose work has been unjustly neglected. The four string quartets are amongst the finest written in the 20th century and the Maggini has already recorded them for Naxos's award winning British Music series. 'These are exemplary, scrupulously prepared readings from the Magginis', wrote Andrew Achenbach for Gramophone, where the recordings were CD of the Month and Editor's Choice, with Bridge 1 & 3 also nominated for a Grammy Award. Now Turner Sims Concert Hall at Southampton University has hosted an innovative three-concert series featuring all four Bridge Quartets. Andrew Clements, writing in the Guardian, says of the Magginis' performance, 'Their lucid presentation of both large-scale structure and rhythmic and harmonic detail was exemplary.' The project was generously supported by the Radcliffe Trust.
The Maggini Quartet are delighted with the progress of their exciting and diverse residency at Old Palace of John Whitgift School in Croydon. This has developed under the dynamic leadership of Director of Music Gareth Hemmings, whose association with the Magginis dates to their popular concerts at Kingston Grammar School when he was working there. Now at Old Palace the range of Maggini activities is considerably more varied, including a series of internal and public concerts which encourage pupils to take up and keep playing instruments and working closely with music groups within the school. The Quartet have also participated in a major dance project in the spring. Cellist Michal Kaznowski says on behalf of the Magginis: Inspired by specialist lighting at the Mazer in Stockholm, the Maggini's four-armed standard lamp was made for them by renowned restorer and cabinet maker Martin Huggett and is regularly used to light the players' music at performances. The Maggini Quartet are grateful to Stentor Music Co Ltd for supporting their educational activities. This is enabling them to schedule some additional visits to schools, sharing their commitment to chamber music with pupils of all ages and abilities. |
what the critics said
"This is surely music that will grow in stature, especially thorough these committed performances" "the Magginis clearly love this music, playing it with the understanding and finesse it deserves" "a superbly integrated reading of the absorbing (Rubbra) Second Quartet" "a gripping final instalment in Max's Naxos odyssey" "the Naxos cycle is a 21st century landmark" "the Maggini perform with the no-holds-barred commitment and technical acumen we have come to expect from them throughout this massive project. Spendidly rich sound and a most truthful balance, too" "the Maggini's performance is full of conviction and the recording balances clarity and atmosphere to something like perfection" "the Magginis play with inspired insight" "the Maggini Quartet make it wonderfully plausible and leave no doubt about the creative fire behind it" "these performances are simply magnificent" "go and hear these players" "such nerve-shredding intensity that one dare hardly breath" "theirs is music-making of entrancing skill, cogent drive and tangible dedication" "a wonderful blend of radiance "delivered with the Maggini Quartet's typical thrust and passion" "technically precise and fabulously idiomatic" "immaculate control of the dramatically fluctuating dynamics" |
