THE PRIMROSE PIANO QUARTET
Susanne Stanzeleit, violin – Dorothea Vogel, viola – Andrew Fuller, cello – John Thwaites, piano
The Primrose Piano Quartet was formed in 2004 by four renowned chamber musicians and is named after the great Scottish violist, William Primrose, who himself played in the Festival Piano Quartet.
The group’s acclaimed discography includes favourites such as works by Fauré, Brahms, Elgar, Strauss and Schubert as well British repertoire featuring neglected masterpieces of the 19th and 20th century and major commissions from Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and Anthony Payne (premièred at the Cheltenham Festival and at King’s Place London).
The Quartet enjoy a busy performing schedule throughout the UK and abroad with recent tours taking them to Denmark, Germany, Romania, Portugal and Bulgaria in addition to regular appearances at London’s Kings Place, Wigmore and Conway Halls.
The group’s double CD of the complete Brahms piano quartets on period pianos was the culmination of years of research into Historically Informed Performance Practice. The project involved the musicians and recording team travelling to Vienna to record in the historic “Ehrbahrsaal”, where Brahms himself frequently performed, using three different pianos of the period from the famous Gert Hechner collection. The result has been hailed by critics as “revelatory”.
Their latest recording focuses on the French Romantics. The disc features works by Fauré, Saint-Saëns and Chausson using a contemporary Erard piano and was released in 2024.
Their own festival here in West Meon is now in its 15th year, and they were appointed ensemble-in-residence at the Battle Festival in 2016.
Susanne Stanzeleit
Renowned as a soloist and chamber musician world-wide, Susanne is well known for her unusually challenging and extensive repertoire, featuring many commissions and UK premières of works by composers such as Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Anthony Payne, John Adams, Lou Harrison, Gyorgy Kurtág, Dmitri Smirnov, John Casken, Piers Hellawell, Jacques Cohen, Peter Fribbins, Sally Beamish and many more.
From 2008-2013 Susanne was leader of the Maggini Quartet. She also led the Werethina String Quartet for many years and the Edinburgh String Quartet between 1999-2002.
Susanne has received rave reviews and a Gramophone Award nomination for her long list of commercial recordings, which feature the complete works of Bartók, Enescu, Delius and Dvoràk as well as Beethoven violin sonatas, works by Charles Camilleri and a series of English sonata recordings. Chamber discs include six discs with the Edinburgh Quartet, chamber music by Kenneth Leighton and Mendelssohn Quartets with the Maggini Quartet. A disc of Elgar, Ireland and Bridge Sonatas was released on the Meridian label in 2017.
Susanne Stanzeleit is regularly invited to teach and give masterclasses and has been visiting teacher of violin and chamber music at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire since 2007.
Dorothea Vogel
Dorothea was born in Switzerland and studied with Rudolf Weber in Winterthur. After winning first prize in the Swiss Youth Competition, Dorothea won scholarships to study with Paul Coletti at the Peabody Institute, USA, and with David Takeno and Micaela Comberti at the Guildhall School in London, where she graduated with the coveted Concert Recital Diploma.
She was a founder member of the Amar Quartet. Dorothea has played the baroque viola in the Kings Consort and Florilegium and has been both principal viola in the Gustav Mahler Orchestra and the World Youth Orchestra in Israel.
In 2001 she joined the Allegri String Quartet, one of the UK’s longest-standing chamber groups, with whom she enjoys a busy performing, touring and recording schedule.
She teaches viola and chamber music at the Royal Welsh College as well as chamber music at Pro Corda and festivals throughout the UK.
Andrew FUller
Andrew Fuller is a member of the Primrose Piano Quartet since 2008. With the quartet he has toured extensively both in the UK and Europe and made many broadcasts and recordings including recent landmark Historically Informed recordings for Meridian: the Brahms Piano Quartets with period pianos in Vienna’s Ehrbar Hall, and in 2023 the Fauré and Chausson quartets with a late 19th century Erard.
His recordings of British works with pianist Michael Dussek on the Dutton Epoch label received critical acclaim several being selected as Editor’s Choice in Gramophone Magazine.
His duo with guitarist John Mills has had a busy season touring the UK after their latest CD release “Latin Serenade” on the Meridian label.As chamber musician he has made many appearances at The Wigmore Hall the South Bank and King’s Place, and at festivals and music societies around the world.
He was a member of Primavera, the York Piano Trio, the Fibonacci sequence and Aquarius. He has also been a guest player with other Groups including the Sorrel, Brindisi and Coull String Quartets, Endymion and the Schubert Ensemble.
He was Associate Principal cello with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (1990-1997). Since then he has regularly worked as guest principal for the RPO as well as many other orchestras including the Philharmonia, BBC Concert Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra, the City of London Sinfonia and the Orchestra of St Johns.
Andrew plays on a cello by Lorenzo Carcassi made in Florence in 1743.
John Thwaites
Professor John Thwaites is best known for his collaborative work with strings. He has worked over decades with cellists Alexander Baillie and Johannes Goritzki, and appeared with Pierre Doumenge, Adrian Brendel, Natalie Clein, Li Wei, Jian Wang and others. A string of recordings with Alexander Baillie for the SOMM label include a Five Star Chamber Music Choice of the Month for BBC Music Magazine.
He has played quintets with the Martinu, Maggini, Dante Schidlof, Emperor and Aurea String Quartets. Theatrical collaborations have included work with Simon Callow, Tony Britton and Tim Piggott-Smith.
His research focus is on Historically Informed Performance Practice in Brahms and British Chamber Music. He has appeared in many major British and International Festivals, the major London concert halls, and many broadcast channels including BBC Radio Three.
John’s teaching career is extensive and he is currently Course Director of the Cadenza International Summer Music School and Head of the Department of Keyboard Studies at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, where he has directed major festivals of Ireland, Delius, Bax, Skryabin and Brahms as well as a celebrity-Gala at Birmingham Town Hall.
This Year's guests
Tom Aldren
Tom Aldren is a violinist with a wide range of musical interests. He is a frequent guest principal player with many of the UK’s leading orchestras, including the CBSO, Philharmonia and BBC Symphony Orchestra, and chamber orchestras such as the English Chamber Orchestra, London Sinfonietta and Royal Northern Sinfonia. He is also a passionate chamber musician, and is the leader of the Gildas String Quartet and the Lipatti Piano Quartet. Over the past few years he has performed with many of today’s best-known musical artists, from Martha Argerich, Maxim Vengerov and Stephen Hough to Burt Bacharach and Dizzee Rascal.
In 2023 Tom was appointed as Principal 1st Violin No. 3 of Manchester Camerata, with highlights of last year including tours of Romania and the Baltics and a chamber music tour of Mendelssohn Octet and Mozart Clarinet Quintet across the UK.
He plays a violin by Antonio Gragnani made in Livorno, 1779.
Clara Isabella Siegle
David Wright
David Wright is a musician of international acclaim who specialises in early keyboard instruments. Originally from London’s East End, David was entirely self taught as a child until his late teens, he then went on to study at the Royal College of Music where he was the winner of numerous international competitions and prizes, most notably the Broadwood Harpsichord Competition. He pursues an extremely busy career as soloist, chamber musician and continuo player in orchestras and opera companies, recently recording with The Academy of Ancient Music. With an extensive discography to his credit, recent collaborations have included recordings with Tasmin Little, Julian Lloyd Webber, composer Debbie Wiseman (in the sound track to the BBC series Woolf Hall), the English Concert, Academy of Ancient Music and concerts with Ema Kirkby and James Bowman. After recording the monumental Goldberg Variations in 2007 David spent much of his time touring as a soloist until joining the blockbuster group Red Priest who now occupy most of his time with a busy international concert diary from America to the Far East. David has more recently been working with Joshua Bell and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields both as a modern pianist and harpsichordist. When not touring, David enjoys working on his crumbling Georgian house in Cambridgeshire which he shares with 9 harpsichords, 2 clavichords, 2 square pianos, 3 chamber organs and a cat called Malcolm.
James Gilchrist
James Gilchrist began his working life as a doctor, turning to a full-time career in music in 1996. His musical interest was fired at a young age, singing first as a chorister in the choir of New College, Oxford, and later as a choral scholar at King’s College, Cambridge. Gilchrist’s extensive concert repertoire has seen him perform in major concert halls throughout the world with conductors including Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Sir Roger Norrington, Bernard Labadie, Harry Christophers, Harry Bicket, Masaaki Suzuki and the late Richard Hickox. A master of English music, he has performed Britten Church Parables in St Petersburg, in London and at the Aldeburgh Festival, Nocturne with the NHK Symphony in Tokyo and War Requiem with the San Francisco Symphony and the National Youth Orchestra of Germany. Equally at home in Baroque repertoire, appearances include Handel L’Allegro il Penseroso ed il Moderato with Stuttgart Bachakademie and at Teatro Real, Madrid, Solomon with Les Violons du Roy, Semele with Concerto Köln, Elijah with the Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España, Madrid, Goteborgs Symfoniker and Bach Collegium Japan, all under the baton of Masaaki Suzuki, Hercules with the English Concert, Ode to St Cecilia with Basel Chamber Orchestra and Messiah with Boston Handel & Haydn Society and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Bach Christmas Oratorio and the St John and St Matthew Passion feature prominently in his schedule, and he is celebrated as perhaps the finest Evangelist of his generation; as one review noted, ‘he hasn’t become a oneman Evangelist industry by chance’. In the 2024-25 season, Gilchrist will reprise of the role of Rev. Horace Adams in Deborah Warner’s acclaimed production of Britten Peter Grimes in his house debut at the Opera di Roma. Concert highlights this season include Bach Mass in B Minor with the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, Handel Messiah with Finland’s Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, Handel Israel in Egypt with the Karol Szymanowski Philharmonic Orchestra in Krakow, Poland, Messiah and Christmas Oratorio at London’s St John’s Smith Square with Polyphony and Stephen Layton and a tour of Bach St Matthew Passion to the Netherlands with De Nederlandse Bachvereniging. In recital, he appears with pianist Anna Tilbrook at the Oxford International Song Festival, Canterbury Music Club, Bayle Music Folkstone, Carwithen Music Festival, Wensleydale Concert Series and the Three Choirs Festival. Gilchrist and Tilbrook will also be joined by horn player, Ben Goldscheider, to present a trio programme at Sherborne Abbey Festival and at Champs Hill. On the opera stage, Gilchrist has performed the role of Rev. Adams with Bergen Philharmonic and Edward Gardner at the Bergen and Edinburgh International Festivals, and later at Den Norske Opera, Oslo, Grieghallen in Bergen and the Royal Festival Hall, London. He subsequently sang the role in Deborah Warner’s production in his company debuts at the Opéra national de Paris, Teatro Real Madrid (cond. Ivor Bolton), and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (cond. Sir Mark Elder). Other recent concert highlights include a European tour of Bach’s cantatas, Mass in B Minor and St John Passion with Bach Collegium Japan and Masaaki Suzuki, Christmas Oratorio with Stephen Layton and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Britten Serenade for Horn, Tenor and Strings with the London Mozart Players, Messiah with Tenebrae, Mendelssohn Elijah with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, a live in-concert recording with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales performing works by Warlock, Dowland and Judith Bingham, Haydn Creation with Dallas Symphony Orchestra and for a staged production with Garsington Opera and Ballet Rambert, as well as appearances with Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest, a collaboration with the Academy of Ancient Music on a programme of Bach & Purcell, and a celebrated performance of St Matthew Passion at King’s College Cambridge as part of Stephen Cleobury’s final Easter week as Director of Music. Recent engagements in the US have included B minor Mass with Philharmonia Baroque in a tour of California, Bach’s Easter Oratorio with Music of the Baroque in Chicago, and the St John and St Matthew Passions as part of the Oregon Bach Festival. Steering away from familiar styles, Gilchrist recently worked with Eddie Parker’s Debussy Mirrored Ensemble with performances in York, Bristol and London. With a fusion of jazz, classical and improvisation the work was a celebration and creative response to Debussy’s work in the centenary of the composer’s death. In 2022, Gilchrist celebrated 25 years of collaboration with pianist Anna Tilbrook, commemorating the anniversary with a recital at the Oxford Lieder Festival. Recent performances together include recitals ‘Time’s Cruel Hand’ at the Wigmore Hall, ‘Around the World in 30 Songs’ at St John’s Smith Square, and a recital trilogy project for the Wigmore Hall – ‘Schumann and the English Romantics’, pairing Schumann song cycles with new commissions from leading composers Sally Beamish, Julian Philips and Jonathan Dove. Following the release of their disc Solitude in July 2020, JamGilchrist and Tilbrook returned to the Wigmore Hall for an exclusive performance of the programme broadcast live online. The disc, released on Chandos Records, includes Jonathan Dove’s Under Alter’d Skies, commissioned by and premiered at the Wigmore in 2017 for the Schumann song cycle project. Their latest recording of the songs of Roger Quilter was released on Chandos Records in 2024. Gilchrist’s impressive discography also includes recordings of Albert Herring (title role) and Vaughan Williams A Poisoned Kiss, St John Passion with the AAM, the Finzi song cycle Oh Fair To See, the critically-acclaimed recordings of Schubert’s song cycles for Orchid Classics and a disc of Schumann song cycles for Linn Records. More recently he has released Songs of Travel for Chandos, alongside Anna Tilbrook, and 100 Years of British Song, a three-part recording project focussing on ’The Art of British Song’, in collaboration with pianist Nathan Williamson, on Somm Recordings. This season, Gilchrist again collaborates with Nathan Williamson in a recording of the songs of Thomas Pitfield on the Divine Art label.
Peter Salem
Peter Salem’s work is currently divided between scores for contemporary ballet and film & television.
Very much in demand as a ballet composer he is now working on his 10th full length ballet, Lady Macbeth for Dutch National Ballet which opens in April 2025.
2024 has seen performances of Doña Peron in LA, Coco Chanel in Atlanta and Queensland, A Streetcar Named Desire at Sadler’s Wells and in Estonia, Frida in Amsterdam and Broken Wings in San Fransisco. Last year saw the premiere of Emma Bovary in Toronto commissioned by the National Ballet of Canada, choreographed by Helen Pickett.
His other ballet scores are The Crucible for Scottish Ballet (chr. Helen Pickett), Camino Real – based on the play by Tennessee Williams – for Atlanta Ballet (chr. Helen Pickett) & The Little Prince for BalletX (chr.Lopez Ochoa) which was recently revived for a US tour and a piece which Peter not only scored but in which he also performs much of the music live on electric violin, banjo, mouthorgan and keyboard.
A Streetcar Named Desire which has established itself as a classic of narrative ballet will be performed at Sadler’s Wells again next year as well as in New Zealand and Scottish Ballet will be touring The Crucible around Scotland.
In 2011 Streetcar opened to five-star reviews and received huge international acclaim winning the Sky Arts Dance award and an Olivier award nomination and in 2019 Peter was nominated for a National Dance Award for ‘Outstanding Creative Contribution’.
His media work is also internationally renowned, principally his music for Call the Midwife – which won the Best Television Programme Music category at the Music and Sound Awards 2016 in addition to 2 Ascap Screen Music awards in the last couple of years – as well as other high profile productions including dramas such as Cider With Rosie, Five Daughters (nominated for Best Original Score at the RTS awards) Great Expectations (BBC) and documentaries including Francesco’s Venice and Simon Schama’s The Power of Art: Caravaggio (BBC2).
His extensive theatre work includes many scores for productions by the RSC, The National Theatre and Shared Experience Theatre.