Fitzwilliam String Quartet - Complete Decca Record

Fitzwilliam String Quartet

The Fitzwilliam String Quartet is one of the most traditional string quartets in the world. They first sat down to play together as students during their first term at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge in the fall of 1968. Soon after graduating in 1971, they were booked for their first professional appointment, as quartet-in-residence in Wilfrid Meller's new music department at York University (succeeding the Amadeus Quartet). The Fitzwilliam was one of the first of a long line of distinguished quartets formed under the direction of Sidney Griller at the Royal Academy of Music. They quickly gained international recognition for their varied repertoire and were awarded the first Gramophone Award for Chamber Music. No doubt it was their much-documented personal connection with Shostakovich that first catapulted them into the public eye (twice Grammy-nominated for Best Chamber Music Performance: Quartet No. 14, 1977; and Quartets Nos. 5 & 6, 1980) - the composer is said to have told Benjamin Britten that the Fitzwilliam were his "preferred partners in my quartets" - but there were many other award-winning recordings on Decca, All collected here in one issue for the first time.

Price: $159.98

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