History
The quartet was formed while its members were studying at the Royal College of Music in London. Whilst there, they were coached by the Chilingirian Quartet. They subsequently studied with the Alban Berg Quartet at Cologne.
The quartet was one of the first groups to participate in the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists Scheme, from 1999 to 2001. They made their Carnegie Hall debut in 2000 as part of the 'Distinctive Debuts' series. Their first performance at the Edinburgh International Festival was in August 2001. The Belcea Quartet were quartet in-residence at Wigmore Hall in London from 2001 to 2006. During their Wigmore residency, the quartet participated in the first performances of The Canticle of the Rose by Joseph Phibbs.
In the 2010/11 season, the Belcea Quartet will give the world premiere of Mark Anthony Turnage’s new work for string quartet Twisted Blues with Twisted Ballad at Wigmore Hall, Cologne Philharmonie, Amsterdam Concertgebouw and the Vienna Konzerthaus. In May 2011, they will be curating their own ‘Beethoven & Schubert: Final Years’ project with concerts in Aldeburgh, the Gulbenkian Grand Auditorium and Philharmonie Luxembourg, collaborating with Imogen Cooper, Ian Bostridge, Mark Padmore, Julius Drake and Valentin Erben. Towards the end of 2011, the Belcea Quartet will embark on an ambitious survey of the complete string quartets by Beethoven with cycles of concerts planned in the UK, Germany, Austria, Sweden and the USA.
The Belcea Quartet won the Gramophone Award for best debut recording in 2001. Their discography for EMI includes Fauré’s La Bonne Chanson with Ian Bostridge; Schubert’s Trout Quintet with Thomas Adès and Corin Long; a double disc of Britten’s string quartets, which won a MIDEM Cannes Award; Mozart’s “Dissonance” and “Hoffmeister” quartets; and the complete Bartók quartets, for which the Quartet was awarded the title Chamber Music Ensemble of the Year by Germany's Echo Klassik Awards and nominated for a 2008 Gramophone Award. Their most recent release, a double disc of the late Schubert Quartets and the String Quintet with Valentin Erben for EMI, was nominated for a Gramophone Award.
The Belcea Quartet are Quartet in Residence Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London and, from the beginning of the 2010/11 season, Ensemble in Residence at the Vienna Konzerthaus.
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