"The Doric’s performances, without exaggeration but with just the right degree of elucidation, revealed the music’s extraordinary originality and the way that Haydn can explore the potential of his thematic material so thoroughly yet so artlessly.

Unequivocally, these were performances of terrific panache and perception, seeming to get right under the skin of Haydn’s creative genius." Rating: ***** The Daily Telegraph - review of recorded concert

 

Haydn: String Quartets – Doric String Quartet

The Doric String Quartet, formed in 1998 at Pro Corda, the Suffolk-based National School for Young Chamber Music Players, made four appearances at the Wigmore Hall over the 2008 / 09 season, including one at the final concert of the season.

This recital, recorded on 15 January, is the Quartet’s first commercial recording. It comprises three quartets by Haydn, providing glimpses into three different periods of the composer’s life and juxtaposing one of his most famous works in the genre, Op. 76 No. 1, with two lesser-known earlier examples, Op. 9 No. 4 and Op. 50 No. 2.

In 2008 the members of the Doric String Quartet gained a special mention for their Haydn interpretations when they took part in the Premio Paolo Borciani Competition in Reggio Emilia; overall, they were awarded second place, having the previous month emerged victorious at the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition.

Reporting from Italy, The Strad wrote of the Quartet’s ‘great wisdom and… creativity of sound’. Having described the Doric’s interpretation of Haydn’s Op. 76 No. 1 as ‘magical’, the reviewer judged the Quartet’s performances as ‘the most inventive, engaging, moving, and beautiful’ of the competition.