Prestigious Romanian string quartet to perform at NUIG

Arts Week with Judy Murphy

The Arcadia String Quartet will perform at the Aula Maxima, NUI Galway on Wednesday next, November 27 as part of a tour of Ireland.

The Quartet, whose members hail from Romania, won first prize at the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition in 2012, an event recognised as being among the most prestigious of its kind in the world. This is the Arcadia Quartet’s first visit to Ireland.

Music for Galway had long had a tradition of inviting the winners of this triennial competition to a recital in their season. However with ever tighter budgets, bringing four people – plus a cello – into the country for just the one night had become more and more of a challenge.

So the organisation has teamed up with the Castleconnell Concert Series in Limerick, Music in Kilkenny and the Droichead Arts Centre in Drogheda as these groups were also looking for ways of bringing the best music to their audiences

“Collaborating in this way, pooling our resources has made it possible to give people across the country the opportunity to see these incredibly gifted young musicians; together we can handle the costs and they are delighted to have the opportunity to show their talents across Ireland. It has been a great experience to work in this way,” says Anna Lardi Fogarty, executive officer with Music for Galway.

The Arcadia Quartet is fast becoming one of Europe’s leading string quartets, having won a host of international prizes. In addition to the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition, the Arcadia also won the Almere International Chamber Music Competition in 2011 and the International Chamber Music Competition Hamburg in 2009. Formed in 2005 while students at the Gheorghe Dima Music Academy in Romania, the quartet has performed across the world and is rapidly establishing itself as one of the most exciting string quartets of its generation.

The programmes vary slightly for each venue but feature masterworks for string quartets by Haydn, Janáček, Beethoven and Debussy. 

The Galway programme will feature Haydn’s Largo Quartet Op. 75 no. 5, Janáček’s Kreutzer Sonata, a work inspired by Tolstoy’s novella of the same name and one of Beethoven’s earliest string quartet, the Op. 18 no. 6.

Next Wednesday’s concert in the Aula will be at 8pm.Tickets cost €20/€16 (for MfG Friends & concession) or €6 (full time students)

 Booking at Music for Galway 091 705962, tht.ie or or Opus 2, 4 High Street, Galway City.