Programme:

Shostakovich In Memoriam

Glazunov - Interludium in Stile Antico Move 3 (from 5 Novelettes opus 15)

Rachmaninov - String Quartet No.1

1. Romance
2. Scherzo

Weinberg -  Improvisation and Romance

Shostakovich - Quartet No. 11 Op. 122

Interval

Shostakovich - Two Pieces for String Quartet

1. Elegy
2. Polka

Weinberg - Aria for String Quartet Op. 9

Shostakovich - String Quartet No. 1 in C major

Lucy Russell, violin
Andrew Roberts, violin
Alan George, viola
Ursula Smith, cello

The original members of the Fitzwilliam String Quartet first sat down together, at Fitzwilliam College Cambridge, in October 1968 – making the Fitzwilliam now one of the longest established string quartets in the world.

International recognition came early for the FSQ, as the first group to record and perform all fifteen Shostakovich string quartets, drawing on the original player's personal connection with the composer. In August 1975. Benjamin Britten afterwards reported that his friend Shostakovich had told him the Fitzwilliam were his “preferred performers of my quartets”! Complete cycles were given in a number of major centres, including London, New York, and Montréal. A new recording of the last three quartets was specially released by Linn in October 2019, to celebrate “FSQ@50” year.

The quartet through the years has been put at the service of diverse other composers spanning six centuries, from the mid-16th to the present day.

The quartet has appeared regularly across the UK, Europe, North America, the Middle and Far East, and Southern Africa, as well as making many award winning recordings for Decca, Linn, and Divine Art. A long-term ambition to record Beethoven and Schubert on gut strings was initiated during their 50th anniversary season, with recordings of Schubert’s last four quartets. Their latest recording in the series of Beethoven’s Op.131 and 135 was completed in 2024 and is planned for release in 2025 on the Divine Art label.

LUCY RUSSELL (violin) was born in Germany of Scottish/Norwegian origin, but has lived mainly in London. She was a Junior Exhibitioner at the Royal Academy of Music, going on to take music degrees at the University of York, where she gave the first British performance of the Norwegian composer Alfred Janson's violin concerto Forspil, based on Hardanger violin traditions (an instrument she actually plays – notably in Uwe Steinmetz’s Genesis). While still a student she was invited to play with London Baroque and the English Baroque Soloists, and by the City of London Festival as a solo violinist in their production/recording of Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea.

She has been a member of the Fitzwilliam since 1988, becoming leader in 1995; with them she has played all over Europe, North America, and South Africa, as well as making recordings for Linn Records, Divine Art Records, the BBC, and various foreign radio stations. She has recorded for Channel Classics, Hyperion, DG, Hännsler, and Decca with other ensembles, having been leader of Florilegium, Concerto Caledonia, Classical Opera Company, Retrospect Ensemble, the Finchcocks Quartet, The King’s Consort, and the New Chamber Opera Band of Players, as well as a director of the Scottish Early Music Consort and a solo violinist in the New London Consort. When time allows she still leads Yorkshire Baroque Soloists, Armonico Consort, and Dunedin Consort, and has been invited to guest lead for the City of London Sinfonia. She has been Associate Leader of Southern Sinfonia, and has also directed the Danish group Ensemble Zimmerman. A CD set of the complete Bach Obbligato Sonatas, with eminent harpsichordist John Butt, has recently been issued by Linn, soon after which she presented a late night performance of JSB solo Partitas at the Three Choirs Festival in Worcester Cathedral. Over the past few years she has been giving recitals with Turkish fortepianist Sezi Seskir in a number of American Universities, including Cornell and Williams – and more lately in the UK last November. A CD of three of Beethoven’s sonatas, including the much loved “Spring”, is now available.

She has taught and given masterclasses all over the world – including the Czech Republic, the United States, South Africa, Singapore, and Russia. Closer to home, she has worked at the Royal Academy of Music with the Modern Instrument Baroque Orchestra, and at Trinity College of Music, Royal Holloway College London, Fitzwilliam College Cambridge, Birmingham Conservatoire, York University, the Royal Northern College of Music, St Mary’s Music School Edinburgh, Dartington Summer School, and Pro Corda. She is Professor of Baroque Violin at the Royal College of Music and at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, and Hon Professor of Violin at the University of St Andrews.

Lucy divides her time between performing on period instruments and their “modern” counterparts, exploring music from Monteverdi to the present day. She is currently training to be a Mindfulness teacher with Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield, and plans to share her knowledge and experience with other musicians/students to enable them to find calm and self-compassion on and off the platform. She is deeply grateful to all former teachers and mentors who have supported her own development over the years.

​She plays on a violin by Ferdinando Gagliano, made in Naples, Italy, in c1789.

ANDREW ROBERTS (violin) has been known to the Fitzwilliam players for many years – and first teamed up with them in July 2019, taking part in a performance of the Mendelssohn Octet, and thereafter as second violinist during the periods before, during, and after the various Covid lockdowns. Andrew comes from a highly distinguished dynasty: his father was the great pianist Bernard Roberts, and his brother Nicholas is cellist of the Coull Quartet; for over fifteen years they played together in the Bernard Roberts Piano Trio, releasing recordings of music by Frank Bridge and Stephen Dodgson to critical acclaim. A founder of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and long-time member of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, he is equally at home in the 'modern' and the ‘historically informed’ musical worlds. An experienced chamber musician, he was a member of the Auriol Quartet, and has been a guest of many ensembles such as the Dante and Salomon Quartets, Lontano, and Hausmusik, and also has an ongoing duo partnership with pianist Rachel Fryer.

Andrew was delighted to have been appointed as second violin in the Fitzwilliam; and, despite all the months of inactivity, his new colleagues were no less thrilled when he agreed to become a member of the quartet in May 2021.

ALAN GEORGE (viola) comes from Cornwall and studied violin with Colin Sauer at Dartington Hall, viola with Herbert Downes in London, and chamber music with Sidney Griller at the Royal Academy of Music. In 1968 he won an open scholarship to King’s College Cambridge, where he became one of the founder members of the Fitzwilliam, remaining as its only viola player for all 55 years of its existence (so far…). Indeed, he is now the longest serving quartet player in Britain!

Since 1976 he has been actively involved with the period instrument movement, including eleven years as principal viola with John Eliot Gardiner’s Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. Until 1988 he was lecturer in music and director of the chamber orchestra at the University of York, and is the author of four studies of Shostakovich’s chamber music, as well as numerous articles and programme notes; he has also presented talks on BBC radio and at various festivals and concert venues throughout Britain and America. He has been tutor in viola at the Royal Northern College of Music, and a visiting lecturer/examiner at many colleges and universities both here and abroad. He has been conductor of the Academy of St. Olave's Chamber Orchestra (in York) since 2009 and has been principal viola in Southern Sinfonia, as well as a lecturer with Martin Randall Travel. In 1981 he was made an Honorary Doctor of Music at Bucknell University, USA, and similarly honoured by the University of York in 2006.

URSULA SMITH (cello) formally joined the quartet on 14 October 2023, having stood in for the indisposed Heather Tuach since July. She has led a highly distinguished career as principal cellist in various groups, including the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, as well as seven years in the highly distinguished Zehetmair Quartet.