Malvern Concert Club: Carducci String Quartet with Peter Lale

Matt Denton violin
Michelle Fleming violin
Eoin Schmidt-Martin viola
Emma Denton cello
with Peter Lale viola

Fanny Mendelssohn String Quartet in E flat

Shostakovich String Quartet No.9 in E flat, Op.117

Mozart String Quintet No.4 in G, K.516

An internationally renowned Anglo-Irish string quartet based in the UK, the versatile and award-winning Carducci String Quartet has performed everything from brand new quartets, classic works by Haydn, complete Shostakovich cycles, and even partnered folk-rock icon Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull. Founded in 1997, the ensemble has won numerous international competitions, including Concert Artists Guild International Competition USA 2007 and First Prize at Finland’s Kuhmo International Chamber Music Competition 2004. In 2016, they took home a Royal Philharmonic Society Award for their performances of cycles of the complete Shostakovich quartets. They were acclaimed by Gramophone Magazine for their “…athletic, upfront performances, clear in texture, forthright in tone and bold in articulation.” The quartet has released a bevy of acclaimed recordings on their own label, Carducci Classics, as well as Signum Classics, and Naxos.

Peter Lale’s love of chamber music came from the many musical evenings he spent as a child playing with his six brothers and sisters, as well as informal performances and concerts in England and Europe. At sixteen he was awarded scholarships to study at the Royal Academy of Music. While still at the college he was invited to play with, and subsequently became a member of, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. In 1985 Lale was a founder member of the Britten Quartet, who in their ten years together achieved much critical acclaim, including the Times saying “Few Quartets since the Amadeus’s heyday can have achieved the same sense of utter comfort with the medium.”