New Orford String Quartet

 New Orford
String Quartet
Biography
Consisting of the concertmasters and principal cellist and violist of the
Montreal and Toronto Symphonies, the New Orford String Quartet has
seen astonishing success, giving annual concerts for national CBC
broadcast and receiving unanimous critical acclaim, including two Opus
Awards for Concert of the Year. Reviews of the New Orford String
Quartet debut concert in the Montreal Gazette applauded a concert
performance that was “sweet, balanced and technically unassailable
less than a week after their members met for the first time… Lustily
applauded in the Orford Arts Centre, the concert was true to the Orford
name in its beauty and refinement. Indeed, there was no trace of
roughness anywhere.” Le Devoir described the musical result as
“stupefying.”
Hailed for their “ravishingly beautiful tone” as well as their
“extraordinary technical skills and musicianship,” these like-minded
musicians came together in 2009 with the goal of revolutionizing the
concept of string quartet playing in Canada. Their concept – to bring
together four major stars of the classical music field – was inspired by
the success of modern chamber orchestras such as the Chamber
Orchestra of Europe and Mahler Chamber Orchestra. The members of
the Quartet, with their deep knowledge of orchestral music, are able to
provide an innovative, unmatched perspective on interpretations of
standard string quartet repertoire.
Forty-five years ago the original Orford String Quartet was formed at
the Jeunesses-Musicales du Canada summer camp at Parc National du
Mont-Orford (today the Orford Arts Centre), giving its first public
concert on August 11, 1965. Through its many recordings and tours
both at home and abroad, the Orford String Quartet became one of the
world’s best-known and most illustrious musical ensembles. After 26
years and more than 2000 concerts on six continents, the Quartet
disbanded, giving its last concert on July 28, 1991. In July 2009 the New
Orford String Quartet arose from the fame and tradition of its glorious
predecessor, giving its first concert for a sold-out audience at the
Orford Arts Centre.
In 2012 the New Orford String Quartet recorded Beethoven’s three
Razumovsky quartets for CBC, a series of gripping performances seen
throughout North America; in 2011 the Quartet released its debut
album of the final quartets of Schubert and Beethoven on Bridge
Records to international acclaim. Hailed as one of the top CDs of 2011
by La Presse and CBC In Concert and nominated for a JUNO Award in
2012, critics have described the recording as a “performance of true
greatness and compelling intensity… stunning!” (Audio Video Club of
Atlanta); “…flawless… a match made in heaven!” (Classical Music
Sentinel); “a performance of rare intensity” (Audiophile Audition); and
“nothing short of electrifying… listen and weep.” (The Toronto Star).
7/13 – Please do not edit without permission
Program Choices
2014-15 Repertoire
Program I
Beethoven: Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 74, “Harp”
Claude Vivier: Quartet
****
Brahms: Quartet in A minor, Op. 51, No. 2
Program II
Mozart: Quartet in D minor, K. 421
Beethoven: Quartet in F minor, “Serioso”
****
Airat Ichmouratov: Quartet No. 4
Program III
Haydn: Quartet in G Major, Op. 76, No. 1
Tim Brady: TBA OR Gellman: Musica Eterna
****
Beethoven: Quartet in A Minor, Op. 132
Select Press
"The world was made in six days. String quartets are supposed to take longer. But here was the New Orford
String Quartet, sounding sweet, balanced and technically unassailable on Saturday, less than a week after
their members, all past or present orchestra players, met for the first time..."
— Arthur Kaptainis, The Montreal Gazette
FEATURES
"I was struck by how these four artists were also able to suspend time and capture
this listener's attention with a semblance of complete stillness..."."
— John Terauds, Musical Toronto
2011 // CBC Music
CONCERT REVIEWS
CD REVIEWS
October 2013 // The Daily Courier (Kelowna)
// Classical Music Central
October 2013 // The Calgary Herald
// Toronto Star
April 2012 // The Ottawa Citizen
// Fanfare Magazine
December 2011 // American Record Guide
July 2011 // La Presse
NOSQ nabs Juno nomination
Robert Rowat on Mar 05, 2012
Excellence in chamber music often comes over time. Some of the best-known groups develop their artistry over years, even decades.
Enter the New Orford String Quartet, a group of four musicians who got together in the summer of 2009, and haven’t looked back.
The NOSQ’s debut album on the Bridge label has garnered a Juno nomination for classical album of the year: solo or chamber ensemble.
They’re the newcomers in a category dominated by veterans: The Canadian Brass, pianists Marc-André Hamelin and Louis Lortie and
flutist Susan Hoeppner, but it’s pretty obvious why the NOSQ belongs in this elite company.
The musicians of the NOSQ are all principal players, with either the Toronto Symphony Orchestra or the Orchestre symphonique de
Montréal. They created their quartet in homage to the original Orford String Quartet, the seminal ensemble that disbanded in 1991 after
a 26-year run.
Like their namesake quartet, the NOSQ has a busy concert schedule. They perform music by Ana Sokolovic and Jacques Hétu at Toronto’s
Roy Thomson Hall on March 7. And starting in mid-April they undertake an ambitious concert tour of Quebec and eastern Ontario.
(Straddling the Ontario-Quebec border seems to be a habit with this group.)
New Orford quartet was superb
October 11, 2013 by Marvin Dickau
Kelowna Chamber Music opened another exciting season on Wednesday at Mary Irwin Theatre, featuring The New Orford String Quartet.
These young Canadian musicians: - Jonathan Crowe, Andrew Wan, Eric Nowlin and Brian Manker - have been given the well-deserved
accolade as Canada's top string quartet.
Their opener, and to my mind the highlight of the evening, was the Beethoven Quartet No 6, a sunny, energetic work which I felt is
typically Beethoven. They captured every nuance of the music, from fiery episodes, tender melodies, quirky, syncopated rhythms and
delicate phrasing. In the free moments, their musical pauses were breathtaking. They also captured all the drama and pathos in the slow
movements and ending with a prestissimo that was absolutely brilliant.
In their four years together, they have coalesced into a formidable group of outstanding ability and ensemble.
The Schafer Quartet No. 1 which followed was amusingly introduced by Manker, which I greatly appreciated. Being honest, I have to say
that although I like much contemporary music, I am not a big fan of Schafer's compositions. This opus I found to be particularly
compelling, however, with his use of large dissonant chords (perhaps like the grinding of ice floes against one another), and the many
different tones and styles he demands from the players. Arguably the most challenging piece on the program, the quartet carried it off
with ease and aplomb, demonstrating once again their technical prowess.
Brahms' Quartet No. 2 was the final piece, a warm melodic composition with flashes of turbulence. The remarkable blend and balance
the group has achieved was evident here, as elsewhere.
I found myself completely spellbound for much of the evening, and judging by the absolute quiet in the theatre, many of the patrons were
also. This was not always the refined classical chamber music. The quartet gave it a lusty sound where necessary, while loving the lyric
sections.
String quartet is a marvel of expression
By Kenneth Delong, October 7, 2013
In Canada, taking over the name of an ensemble with the reputation and lore of The Orford String Quartet is no small thing. The original quartet
had a reputation as Canada's signature chamber ensemble during its heyday, and its recordings of the Beethoven string quartets still ranks very
well in a crowded field.
This was my first time hearing the New Orford Quartet, and it is with some pleasure that I can say that the new quartet fully lives up to its
illustrious namesake. Playing before a large audience in the Rozsa Centre, The New Orford Quartet wowed the patrons of the Calgary Pro
Musica Society with a spectacular display of technical polish and refinement that was employed to deliver musical ideas of richness and
wonderful imagination.
The members of the quartet nicely blend Toronto and Montreal: the two violinists the concertmasters of their respective orchestras, and the
two lower strings also divided between the two cities. All players are experienced both in leadership positions in orchestras and as concert
soloists. They thus bring to their string quartet work an undefinable quality of authority in performance that is difficult to achieve without such
experience. When the players are also committed to the ideal of a unified ensemble, the electricity in performance is quite palpable.
A sense that this was to be a very special concert came in the very opening of the Haydn String Quartet in G major, Op. 76, No. 1, a work that
requires the utmost in taste and the understanding of the space between refinement and passion. Here was perfection in tuning, balance, and
a perfectly unified concept of the piece - Haydn at his most lyrical, playful and diverting.
If I were to choose one specific element that stood out for me in the concert, it would be the total sound of the quartet in the slow passages, a
sound warmly conceived but not mushy or thick, in which the melodies were enveloped in the perfect total sound world.
This element was especially noteworthy in the slow movement of the String Quartet No. 1 by Canadian composer Jacques Hetu and in the slow
movement of the String Quartet in E minor, Op. 59, No. 1, by Beethoven, the two other works on the program.
It is appropriate that the New Orford Quartet should play the Hetu quartet, since it was first performed by their namesake some 40 years ago.
This is a very attractive piece that is remarkably well composed, especially for the performing instruments. I hope that the quartet will soon be
able to commercially record this quartet, since it is a major Canadian work. The New Orford Quartet admirably caught the mixture of angularity
and lyricism that informs this excellent Canadian piece. It deserves to be readily available.
The performance of the Beethoven string quartet overall was a marvel of expression and first-class execution - as good a performance as I have
ever heard. And the Brahms quartet encore was, if anything, even better. The quartet will perform the concert again tonight. It should not be
missed.
Review: New Orford String Quartet delivers
outstanding evening of music
Richard Todd, 04/19/12
The New Orford String Quartet gave a concert in St. Andrew's
Wednesday evening as part of the Canadian Chamber Players' series.
They played quartets by Mozart, Bartók and, with violist Guylaine
Lemaire cellist Julian Armour, the Brahms Opus 18 Sextet.
Mozart's last three quartets are generally reckoned half a notch below
the six the composer dedicated to Haydn some years earlier, but they
come from Mozart's years of greatest maturity and each is a superb
creation.
The F Major, K. 590 that opened Wednesday's concert was his last
string quartet. In fact he was to write "only" 36 more works in the 17
months that remained of his short life.
The Orford rendition was robust and commanding without ever being
overbearing. It was far from a cookie-cutter performance and the
musicians did bring much individual insight to it. You might easily
imagine that this was very close to what Mozart would have wished to
hear.
Bartók's String Quartet no. 3 was written 86 years ago but for many
listeners it is still among his three or four most challenging works. (It's
no picnic for the musicians either.) Strewn with dissonant parallel
progressions and similar devices, it is nonetheless full of visceral
excitement and even moments of great beauty.
The New Orfords' reading was altogether outstanding and if there were
some people in Wednesday's audience who had yet to completely "get"
the piece, their understanding may have been advanced a fair bit on
this occasion.
It benefited from the best kind of quartet playing, in which the
ensemble is completely integrated and yet each player's individual
contribution is distinct and full of character. And this is all the more
remarkable as these musicians came together less than three years
ago.
The second half of the program was given to a golden performance of
the Brahms Sextet in B-flat, op. 18. This is one of Brahms's most
popular chamber work and likely the most popular of all string sextets.
The very same qualities that made the Bartók so successful served the
Brahms as well, though the sound was somewhat different. The
textures created by six instruments are naturally thicker than with four.
But, details aside, this performance was a worthy conclusion to an
outstanding evening of music.
New Orford String Quartet
Edmonton concert review, Bill Rankin, 12/4/11
The New Orford Quartet, established in 2009, has the balance I've been
craving and a performance demeanor that exudes consummate
musicianship and a commitment to entertaining without fuss.
The New Orford, founded at the Orford Arts Centre in the Eastern
Townships of Quebec, is composed of four male string players with a
history of distinguished accomplishments. Jonathan Crow, 33, was the
Montreal Symphony's concertmaster for four years in the early 2000s
and was appointed the Toronto Symphony's concertmaster last
summer. Andrew Wan, 27, who splits first and second violin duties with
Crow, is co-concertmaster of the Montreal Symphony.
But it was cellist Brian Manker's anchoring presence that won me over
in the ensemble's last concert of their eight-concert tour of Western
Canada, which began in Victoria and ended in a cozy Edmonton venue
on MacEwan University's Alberta College campus on December 4.
Manker, the Montreal Symphony's principal cellist and also a member
of the Adorno Quartet, plays an instrument made in 2005; but its tone
and his touch are rich and assured, and he gives the group a ground
that reinforces everything else that is impressive about this ensemble's
playing.
The New Orford has won several glowing reviews for its first CD (see
Nov/Dec 2011) that included Schubert's String Quartet No. 15 and
Beethoven's No. 16, which opened the Edmonton concert.
Their interpretation of Beethoven's last quartet was most captivating,
whether tender or grave. Wan played the first violin line without
affectation; but it was Manker who wonderfully established the mood
right from the opening of the first movement, which is as sweet and
lyrical as anything in Beethoven's youthful Opus 18 quartets. They
approached the famous third movement with stillness and sublimity.
Even the second movement, marked vivace, played around the edges
of stateliness rather than inclining toward the intrepid. In the final
movement, Manker once again reinforced the high seriousness of the
grave ma non troppo tratto instruction, before the group delivered a
leisurely take on the concluding allegro theme.
The New Orford, whose name revives memories of the original
Canadian Orford Quartet that traveled the world from 1965 to 1991, is
committed to playing contemporary Canadian music as well as the
classics. For its tour it included Serbo-Canadian composer Anna
Sokolovic's Blanc Dominant (1999), an eight-part work with many of the
conventional features of late 20th-Century string quartet writing.
Sokolovic is hardly demagogic in her use of an idiom that often favors
harsh agitated chromaticism and angular ideas that strain for musical
attention in self-consciously eccentric directions. She is secure in her
commitment to her idiom, and the New Orford gave her piece a
vigorous performance.
The concert, sponsored by the Edmonton Recital Society, concluded
with Brahms's String Quintet No. 2, no doubt included in the program
because it calls for a second viola, allowing the founder of the recital
society, Aaron Au (a former member of the Edmonton Symphony) to
join the group.
Crow took the first chair for the Brahms. He is a tall man who would
have no trouble looking over an NFL offensive line. Wan is close to a
foot shorter. With Crow in the first chair, the group's energy tilted
toward the first violin. The Brahms was solid, but it didn't have the
qualities I detected in their performance of the Beethoven.
Excellent, This New Orford!
Claude Gingras, July 2011
The Orford Quartet was founded at the arts centre of that name in 1965 and remained in existence until 1991 despite some tempestuous changes of
personnel. Formed two years ago, the New Orford Quartet “arose from the fame and tradition of its glorious predecessor,” according to the program
of the concert the group gave Monday evening in the little church of Saint-Alphonse-Rodriguez, at the Lanaudière Festival.
Even though Orford and Lanaudière do not operate in the same territory, they are competitors, and you’ll have to admit there is something wryly
amusing about meeting up with them under the same roof.
Be that as it may, I must say that in a mere two years this “junior” Orford has achieved a level of technique, sound quality, blend and an expressive
richness that required a quarter of a century of the former group. What we heard Monday evening was of the highest level, equaling in all respects
what the Ladies’ Morning and Pro Musica purvey us from abroad. The two violinists alternate as first violin, and the idea, patterned after quartets like
the Emerson, is stimulating. The cellist’s supple, expressive sound also deserves to be singled out.
Part of Monday’s program had been performed recently at Orford and in Lachine. First on the program was Blanc dominant, by Ana Sokolovic. The
work was commissioned by the Molinari Quartet, who premiered it in 1998. (Oddly enough, this detail was only mentioned in the English (!) section of
the program.) The Molinaris played the 15-minute piece again at least twice. It is still quite listenable, with its glissandos, pizzicatos, harmonics,
ponticello and other sound effects. Nevertheless, the composer borrows excessively from Bartók.
The two main works were Beethoven’s Op. 135 and Schubert’s D. 887 (and not D. 885, as stated in the program). The daring idiom of these two
composers’ last quartets, both dating from 1826, plunges us into a disturbing, abstract world. This choice of repertoire indicates a seriousness on the
part of the New Orford Quartet that I do not recall having remarked in their predecessors.
There was a power failure in the Beethoven just as the performers were about to launch into the Finale, with its famous “Muss es sein? - Es muss sein!”
(Must it be? - It must be!). The concert continued by candlelight, and electricity was restored at the end of the Schubert.
Applauded and called back for an encore, the group played more Beethoven: the Cavatina from the Op. 130.
The New Orford’s first recording, on the Bridge label, was launched on this occasion. It contains the same two Beethoven and Schubert quartets.
Jonathan Crow confirmed that he is leaving Montreal to become the concertmaster of the Toronto Symphony. He takes up his post in September but
will stay on with the quartet and continue his teaching at McGill for a time.
Their grip on the varying levels of expression at their disposal is
flawless, as is their control of dynamics throughout. But what is
most wonderful about all this is the ease with which they deliver
this effect. Nothing ever sounds forced or calculated. And this
exacting approach is a constant throughout the music on this CD
from start to finish. This disc marks the New Orford's debut
recording. Bridge Records could not have picked a better
program to launch their recording career, nor could they have
chosen a better ensemble to perform this program. A match
made in heaven!
By Jean-Yves Duperron
Franz Schubert
String Quartet No. 15 in G Major, D. 887, Op. 161
Ludwig Van Beethoven
String Quartet No. 16 in F Major, Op. 135
Jonathan Crow (Violin), Andrew Wan (Violin), Eric Nowlin
(Viola) and Brian Manker (Cello) perform this music as if their
lives depended on it, as if one lapse of attention, one second of
distraction, one minor sag in the tension, could bring the whole
edifice crashing down. They even seem to hold their breaths
suspended as a group, and feel the pulse of the music as one.
This foursome of high-powered Canadian string stars presents
performances of two canonical early-Romantic works that are
nothing short of electrifying... Both four-movement pieces veer
between intimacy and grandeur, extroversion and quiet solitude.
These four string virtuosos animate every note with uncommon
power and passion as well as elegance. Listen and weep.
4 out of 4 stars
By John Terauds
Second, near the end of the movement, in the forte fortissimo
tutti (from bar 672 to bar 679, starting at 10:19), the viola's
primary harmonization and second violin's secondary
By Burton Rothleder
This is my first encounter with the New Orford Quartet, and I
must say I am stunned by its remarkable grasp of each of the
very final quartets of these composers. I will dispense with the
details of performance quality by describing the New Orford's
playing succinctly as having perfection of intonation, superb tone
quality, and unsurpassed clarity of musical line, while offering
ensemble playing of the finest character. They sound like a
quartet that has been together for at least 20 years rather than
the two years that have actually elapsed.
The nervous character of the first movement of the Schubert
quartet, brought about by the abundance of 16th- and 32nd-note
tremolo, is more fully revealed here than in most other
performances that I've encountered. In the second movement,
the fortissimo that begins at bar 44 (at 3: 08) and proceeds to bar
81 is gripping in intensity and unsparingly reveals the tonal
uncertainty that suffuses these 38 bars. In the fourth movement,
there are two especially noteworthy aspects of the New Orford's
fine playing. First, there is an extraordinarily beautiful, earcatching second violin passage in C♯-Minor (starting at bar 323, at
5:27) that is played here with great clarity and expressiveness.
harmonization, against repeated notes by the other two
instruments, is sufficiently discernable to make it thrilling to hear
(the Juilliard String Quartet in its Schubert G Major does it even
better).
In the Beethoven quartet, tempos are somewhat relaxed in the
first three movements. This interpretive choice enables the
listener to savor each of the four musical lines as the movements
proceed, but never causes the music to drag. The third
movement's slow tempo is properly observed, as indicated by the
Lento assai Beethoven assigns to these D♭-variations. The cello
opening in the final movement ("Muss es sein?") is not played
piano as marked but is played mezzo forte, giving it a sardonic
cast. I like this departure from the score, although it may not
have been what Beethoven intended. The second repeat in the
final movement ("at the pleasure of the players," per the
composer) is omitted.
The New Orford String Quartet turns out a very gratifying
performance of Schubert's last quartet and a very interesting
performance of Beethoven's last quartet. You don't want to miss
out on this disc, and I want to hear more from the New Orford.
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