Piatti & Friends (string sextet)
Friday 14 November 2025 at 7.30pm
Miguel Sobrinho (viola); Jessie Ann Richardson (cello); Emily Howard (violin); Michael Trainor (violin) Photo: Venetia Jollands
Strauss: Prelude to Capriccio
Tchaikovsky: Souvenir de Florence
Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht
Resident Quartet at Kings Place, London, the distinguished Piatti Quartet are widely renowned for their ‘profound music making’ (The Strad) and their ‘lyrical warmth’ (BBC Music Magazine). Since their prizewinning performances at the 2015 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition, they have performed all over the world and made international broadcasts from many countries.
The Piatti Quartet is famed for their diverse programming and for passionate interpretations across the spectrum of quartet writing; and have commissioned and recorded some of the most major and impressive works added to the quartet canon in recent years.
Their wide ranging discography and repertoire involves many collaborations with a broad range of artists including St. Martin’s Voices, Nicky Spence, Julius Drake, Michael Collins, Ian Bostridge, and the Belcea Quartet receiving a Presto Music Award for ‘Top 10 Recordings of the Year 2023’, a Gramophone’s ‘Editor’s Choice for the Month’ with NMC, and a nomination for ‘Recording of the Year’ with both Limelight and Gramophone for their Hyperion disc with Nicky Spence.
The quartet’s name is dedicated to Alfredo Piatti, a 19th Century virtuoso cellist who was a professor at the Royal Academy of Music (the alma mater of the founders of the quartet) and also a major exponent of chamber music and contemporary music of his time.
Tchaikovsky: Souvenir de Florence
Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht
Resident Quartet at Kings Place, London, the distinguished Piatti Quartet are widely renowned for their ‘profound music making’ (The Strad) and their ‘lyrical warmth’ (BBC Music Magazine). Since their prizewinning performances at the 2015 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition, they have performed all over the world and made international broadcasts from many countries.
The Piatti Quartet is famed for their diverse programming and for passionate interpretations across the spectrum of quartet writing; and have commissioned and recorded some of the most major and impressive works added to the quartet canon in recent years.
Their wide ranging discography and repertoire involves many collaborations with a broad range of artists including St. Martin’s Voices, Nicky Spence, Julius Drake, Michael Collins, Ian Bostridge, and the Belcea Quartet receiving a Presto Music Award for ‘Top 10 Recordings of the Year 2023’, a Gramophone’s ‘Editor’s Choice for the Month’ with NMC, and a nomination for ‘Recording of the Year’ with both Limelight and Gramophone for their Hyperion disc with Nicky Spence.
The quartet’s name is dedicated to Alfredo Piatti, a 19th Century virtuoso cellist who was a professor at the Royal Academy of Music (the alma mater of the founders of the quartet) and also a major exponent of chamber music and contemporary music of his time.
Joining the Piatti Quartet for this anniversary concert of music for string sextet:
Zahra Benyounes (viola) is in demand as a chamber, session and orchestral musician. She was first violinist and founding member of the prize-winning Benyounes Quartet for 16 years.
She has recently embarked on a new venture with her love for the viola and co-founded the London Piano Quartet in 2022. Zahra is on the faculty of chamber music at the Royal Northern College of Music and for the last 9 years has been co Artistic Director of the South Downs Summer Music Festival. www.zahrabenyounes.com/ |
One of Europe’s most versatile cellists, the Norwegian Jonathan Aasgaard is active as soloist, chamber musician, studio musician, orchestral principal, teacher, and explorer of new music.
He is Principal Cello of the Sinfonia of London, a regular guest principal of leading British and continental European orchestras, and, as a dedicated teacher, Professor of Cello at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. www.jonathan-aasgaard.com/ |