"The Eroica Quartet.. .refreshingly impetuous... get at something that most 'modern' performers somehow miss: a sense of frailty, contingency and humanity that is all too rare in modern musical life." - The New York Times

• Peter Hanson - violin • Lucy Howard - violin • Gustav Clarkson - viola • David Watkin - cello

As the French Revolution stunned political Europe, so the revolutionary sounds of Beethoven astonished the world of music. The artist, no longer under the auspices of a wealthy patron, was liberated as an individual creative soul. Emerging from these turbulent times, the music of Beethoven and Schubert became the inspiration for Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms and their successors.

The Eroica Quartet has astonished audiences and critics with its radical interpretations of some of the best-known music of the 19th century. The Quartet was formed in 1993 by four of Britain’s leading period instrumentalists, committed to performing music of the Romantic period and to rediscovering the style of its performance. They passionately believe that greater freedom of expression can be found in a thorough immersion in the performance styles of the past. The group aims to bring new perspectives to a familiar repertoire, and to re-introduce forgotten masterpieces.

The Quartet has been involved in many interesting projects. They have appeared on an Open University music study video, rehearsing and performing. In 1997 they gave a series of six concerts for the City of London Festival, performing the op.18 quartets as part of a complete Beethoven cycle. In the autumn of that year they gave three concerts at the Nuits Romantiques festival in and around Aix-les-Bains in France. During the past few seasons the Quartet has given concerts all over the UK, Europe and in the USA and has made its debut performances at Wigmore Hall, London, the Library of Congress, Washington DC, the Frick Collection, New York City and in Copenhagen, Paris and Haarlem. In the autumn of 2000 they performed with pianist Robert Levin in concerts of Beethoven’s op 95 Quartet, and chamber versions of the Fourth Piano Concerto and Second Symphony in Bremen and at the Bonn Beethovenfest.

The Eroica Quartet was invited to give the world premiere of a newly-discovered miniature quartet by Beethoven at a press conference at Sotheby’s in London, prior to the manuscript’s sale by auction in December 1999.

The Quartet has a strong and enquiring relationship with Dr Clive Brown, a leading expert on the performance of Romantic music. In particular they have worked together on the expressive implications of bowings and fingerings found in mid-19th century editions. One of the most influential interpreters of the time was Mendelssohn’s friend, the leader of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Ferdinand David. For their recording of the Mendelssohn quartets, the Eroica Quartet had access to a signed 1st violin part containing his unpublished bowings and fingerings. They have studied extensively many old editions and from these have developed their own style of performance.

Three members of the Quartet have worked extensively with John Eliot Gardiner and his Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique, both as concerto soloists and in that orchestra’s Beethoven and Schumann cycles.

The Quartet has a fruitful partnership with Harmonia Mundi USA. Their recordings of Beethoven, Schumann and their ongoing Mendelssohn project have all received huge critical acclaim both in Europe and the USA.