wigmore hall string quartet competition 2025

[Herman]

Tonight, Sunday April 6th, Wigmore Hall will host the final three recitals of the 2025 String Quartet Competition.

I have been watching / sampling the first rounds and Saturday night's semifinal, and the level is very high.
The three finalist ensembles are Oslo based Quartet Opus13, the Japanese Quartet Integra and the New York City based Terra Quartet.

As I said, the musical level is incredible, so I guess the bands just didn't have any time left to think of good names, like, the Beatles or something.

I just happen to be somewhat familiar with the Opus13 and its amazing first violinist Sonoko Miriam Welde, from Banff 2022 where they awarded second prize. In the intervening two and a half years the band has grown into a powerhouse and I'm rooting for them to end up as first prize tonight.

The recitals are streamed on youtube. just search under this posts title.

Here is Opus13 and Haydn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX6ov4QhLAA

[brewski]

I have been watching most of the week, as much as I could squeeze in between work and other commitments. Thankfully they have archived each day's performances. (Will definitely be revisiting the Erinys Quartet in Britten's Second, and Quartet Integra in the Ligeti No. 2.) Totally agree about the level of proficiency, which is beyond impressive. Equally impressive is the jury, which I just found today:

John Gilhooly CBE, Chairman of the Jury, and Director of Wigmore Hall
Peter Jarůšek
Nina Lee
Heime Müller
Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt
Lesley Robertson
Mark Steinberg

I was not familiar with Opus13 until this week, and am totally won over by their expertise. But frankly, I would be happy with any of them winning the top prize.

[Herman]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaQ2wztyDUw

the finals' stream. It's going to be a Beethoven night, with the 132 and 130 and 59.1.

Back in Banff 2022 the Opus13 performed LvB 130 / 133 with the Grosse Fuge, so that's most likely tonight's conclusion.

[Herman]

Quartet Opus13 took the First Prize and various special prizes, for their Mozart and Haydn performances during the prelimininary rounds, and deservedly so.
They are clearly ready for the big league standing out for their own unique sound, somewhat reminiscent (to me) of the way the Juilliard Quartet used to sound in the Sixties: dry, rhythm based, in the case of the Norwegian Opus13 hitting the strings in such a way we\re hearing a lot of overtones.
This characteristic came, again, to the fore in the finale performance of the Beethoven op 130, in the dance movements and the short finale (no Grosse Fugue this time): they are really a hot band when they play like this and I hope they will be travelling to Amsterdam sometime soon. This is a sensational new string quartet.

[brewski]

Opus13 were terrific and deserved the top prize. That said, I wouldn't have been unhappy if either of the other two — Quartet Integra and the Terra String Quartet — had won. As people were saying in the comments on YouTube, the level of playing today was extraordinarily high.

I'm glad that Quartet Integra won for the best performance of Judith Weir's Second String Quartet, "The Spaniard" (the compulsory piece), which was well worth hearing multiple times, and only got more interesting as the week went on.

[Herman]

It's all a matter of taste, perhaps. The way I heard it the Opus13 was in a different league than the Integra or Terra, who delivered good solid somewhat polite performances (in both cases with some deterioration of precision in the finale due to wear and tear, which is only natural), however I didn't get the sense the music was created before my eyes. Which is what the Norwegian band does.

The O13 first violin has in the past been coached by Janine Jansen, and I guess they share some of this animal way of playing, the hunching down into the strings, which makes for musical fireworks (and a great living for the local physiotherapist).