• Summer at Breinton with Consone Quartet

    Summer at Breinton with Consone Quartet

  • Consone Quartet

    Consone Quartet

  • Magdalena Loth-Hill, violin and Agata Daraškaite, violin

    Magdalena Loth-Hill, violin and Agata Daraškaite, violin

  • Elitsa Bogdanova, viola, and George Ross, cello

    Elitsa Bogdanova, viola, and George Ross, cello

  • Consone Quartet

    Consone Quartet

  • Yi-Ann Yeung, solo cello

    Yi-Ann Yeung, solo cello

  • Yi-Ann Yeung, solo cello

    Yi-Ann Yeung, solo cello

  • Summer at Breinton with Consone Quartet

    Summer at Breinton with Consone Quartet

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Photographs courtesy of David Hogg of Horizon Imaging.

 

Consone Quartet, the first-ever period-instrument quartet to perform at Breinton, made a stark contrast from the previous week's event (that is, I intended it that way!). Another stark contrast was the British weather, this time at least ten degrees cooler and threatening to rain all afternoon (which I did not intend but our audience was well prepared for!).  However uncertain the weather condition was, and however nervous I felt all morning, our wonderful audience came along happily. Everyone knew how incredibly fortunate we were to be able to hear the Consone Quartet. 

The programme, which consisted of Mozart's Quartet in D minor K421 and Mendelssohn Quartet 1823, was utterly beautiful, and I felt the quartet displayed their strengths superbly; their expert collaboration, the glorious sounds of their distinguished period instruments, the precision of each and every note melting into a beautiful harmony and shape.  Surely these must be some of the reasons why they were selected as the first-ever period-instrument quartet as BBC Young Generation Artists!

Supporting their performance was a young cellist from Wellington College, Yi-Ann Yeung.  Her varied programme of short solo pieces from the baroque to living composers was well-structured, appealing and very convincing.

Our thanks go to David Hogg of Horizon Imaging for this video of the recital.

The first period instrument quartet to be selected as BBC New Generation Artists, the Consone Quartet are fast making a name for themselves with their honest and expressive interpretations of classical and early romantic repertoire. Their debut CD (released in 2018 on the French Ambronay Label) explores music by Haydn and Mendelssohn and was met with great critical acclaim as a recording “that instantly leaps out of the stereo at you as something special” (The Strad, 2019).

Yi-Ann Yeung, cello

  • D Gabrielli
    • Ricercar No. 1
  • J S Bach
    • Prelude from Suite No. 1
  • Brearley
    • Simple Suite
  • Tagell
    • Flamenco

Consone Quartet

  • W A Mozart
    • Quartet in D minor, KV421
  • F Mendelssohn
    • Quartet in E flat, 1823

 

 

British-Polish violinist Magdalena Loth-Hill learned locally in Cumbria before accepting a place at Chetham’s School of Music to study with Jan Repko. She continued her studies at the Royal College of Music, London, with Itzhak Rashkovsky and Laura Samuel and later took up baroque violin with Adrian Butterfield and Lucy Russell. Magdalena graduated with first-class honours and went on to gain a Master’s degree with Distinction. She was awarded the 2015/16 Mills Williams Junior Fellowship at the RCM, a post she held while studying for an Artist Diploma in baroque violin.

Having joined the Grammy award-winning Kremerata Baltica, a chamber orchestra of musicians from the Baltic states led by Gidon Kremer, Agata Daraškaite spends most of her time touring with this ensemble and has since visited Europe, the Middle East, the Far East, North and South Americas. While not on tour, Agata is a keen chamber musician and takes an active interest in historical performance. This has led to creating a string quartet (Consone Quartet) exploring the classical and early romantic repertoire on period instruments.

 

Bulgarian violist, Elitsa Bogdanova commenced her viola studies in 2002 at the National Music School “L. Pipkov” in Sofia. After moving to London in 2007, she completed her BMus (Hons) and MMus degrees at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, studying with Alexander Zemtsov and Rachel Roberts. During her time at Guildhall, Elitsa developed a keen interest in historical performance, working closely with Jane Rogers and Pavlo Beznosiuk. Elitsa is quickly establishing herself as an active freelance musician, having performed on period instruments with ensembles such as the London Handel Orchestra, Hanover Band, La Nuova Musica, Ensemble DeNote, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

George Ross was a student at the Purcell School studying with Alexander Boyarsky with assistance from the Government’s Music and Dance Scheme. He has won prizes in Porec, Liezen, Marlow Festival Concerto Competition, the Martin Musical Scholarship fund and was given the Pierre Fournier prize in 2009. In the same year, he was awarded a scholarship to the Royal College of Music continuing to work with Boyarsky on modern cello and Richard Tunnicliffe on Baroque.

 

Yi-Ann Yeung was born in Malaysia and started playing the cello from the age of four. She was a member of the National Children’s Orchestra, Berkshire Youth Symphony Orchestra, Berkshire Young Voices and is currently a music scholar at Wellington College where she recently passed her ARSM Diploma with Distinction.