Belcea Quartet
The Belcea Quartet has maintained a consistent sound, drawing on the members' international backgrounds through several changes in personnel. The group specializes in Romantic and early modern repertory.
The Belcea Quartet was formed in 1994 by Corina Belcea, who remains the group's first violinist (she is now Corina Belcea-Fisher). She and the other players, violinist Laura Samuel, violist Krzysztof Chorzelski, and cellist Matthew Talty, were all students at the Royal College of Music at the time. Samuel and Talty were later replaced by Axel Schacher and Antoine Lederlin, respectively. Although the group has continued to be based in London, its membership is international; Belcea is Romanian, Chorzelski is Polish, and Schacher and Lederlin are French. The group's playing draws on several national traditions. The players underwent several years of coaching with the Chilingirian Quartet, the Amadeus Quartet, and violinist Simon Rowland-Jones before entering the international scene, upon which the group promptly won string quartet competitions in Osaka, Japan, and Bordeaux, France. The quartet was often featured on BBC radio in its early years, and that exposure helped it land a quartet-in-residence slot at London's Wigmore Hall. That lasted until 2006, by which time the Belcea Quartet had already recorded eight albums for the EMI label.
The quartet recorded one more album for EMI, a complete cycle of Bartók's quartets, in 2008. In 2013 the group moved to Zig Zag Territoires and then, in 2015, to the Alpha label. It has continued to hold prestigious residencies, including at the Guildhall School in London, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, and, since 2017, at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin. The Belcea Quartet is known for its readings of traditional quartet repertory, having performed and recorded a complete cycle of Beethoven's quartets for the Zig Zag Territoires label, but also champions contemporary music by such composers as Krzysztof Penderecki and Joseph Phibbs. The group has continued to record prolifically, issuing a recording of Brahms' string sextets with violist Tabea Zimmermann and cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras in 2022.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Discography
17 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Brahms: String Sextets
Belcea Quartet, Tabea Zimmermann, Jean-Guihen Queyras
Classical - Released by Alpha Classics on 11 Mar 2022
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: The Complete String Quartets
Classical - Released by Alpha Classics on 1 Feb 2014
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: String Quartets & Piano Quintet
Chamber Music - Released by Alpha Classics on 1 Sep 2016
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: The Complete String Quartets
Classical - Released by Alpha Classics on 1 Feb 2014
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Janáček & Ligeti : Quartets
Classical - Released by Alpha Classics on 26 Apr 2019
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Berg, Webern & Schönberg : Chamber Music
Belcea Quartet, Nicolas Bône, Antônio Meneses
Chamber Music - Released by Alpha Classics on 2 Oct 2015
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 3 & Piano Quintet
Belcea Quartet, Piotr Anderszewski
Chamber Music - Released by Alpha Classics on 13 Apr 2018
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Debussy, Dutilleux & Ravel: String Quartets
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 1 Jan 2000
The Qobuz Essential Discography16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: The Complete String Quartets, Vol. 1
Classical - Released by Zig-Zag Territoires on 23 Oct 2012
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Ludwig van Beethoven : The Complete String Quartets (Intégrale des quatuors à cordes), Vol. 2
Quartets - Released by Zig-Zag Territoires on 26 Mar 2013
Gramophone: Recording of the Month24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Quatuors à cordes, Divertimenti
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 4 Apr 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert: String Quintet, String Quartets No. 15 & No. 14 "Death and the Maiden"
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 2 Nov 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Complete Warner Classics Edition
Chamber Music - Released by Warner Classics on 17 Mar 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Béla Bartók : String Quartets
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 14 Jan 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart String Quartets
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 6 Feb 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert: String Quartets D. 804 "Rosamunde", D. 703 "Quartettsatz" & D. 87
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 1 Jan 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms : String Quartet 1 & Quintet 2
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 10 Feb 2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo