EIF Fibonacci Quartet Queen's Hall 9th August 2025 Review
Fibonacci Quartet at the Queen’s Hall Edinburgh was one of this year’s always popular EIF 11am concerts, and the quartet and the audience quickly developed a friendly rapport with one another. A big part of the reason for this, I think, was the quartet taking the time to not only tell their audience a little bit about the music that they were going to play, but also why this music was so personal to them. Knowing that a performer actually likes and enjoys the music and wants to share that enjoyment with everyone is always a bonus for me.
All of the music in this concert programme - Helen Grime String Quartet No.1 (2014), Janáček String Quartet No.2 ‘Intimate Letters’ (1928) and Smetana String Quartet No. 1 in E minor, ‘From my Life’ (1876) was very personal to its creators and, for me, this concert was not only an introduction to a new quartet, but also music that I was not that familiar with.
Fibonacci Quartet originally formed at the Guildhall School of Music in London, but since then these four talented musicians, still very much in the early years of their professional career, have been establishing a solid reputation for their music across Europe and further afield. Along the way they have also won some prestigious musical awards.
This quartet are obviously more than capable of playing any of the music that you would normally expect to be in a string quartet’s repertoire but, as this concert proves, they also like playing some unexpected music and maybe challenging a little bit how many people imagine a classical string quartet should sound.
The first of these works, Helen Grime String Quartet No.1 (2014), with a performance time of approximately 15 minutes, is actually three movements performed without a break between them. This work was written by the composer after giving birth to her son Simon in 2013.
The second work, Janáček String Quartet No.2 ‘Intimate Letters’ (1928) was originally composed as a commission for the Bohemian Quartet and it is from one perspective a massive emotional outpouring from Janáček to his relationship with one woman Kamila Stösslová. From another perspective it is a rather sad tale of obsessiveness from Janáček to a much younger woman. Over the course of their relationship Janáček wrote over 700 letters to Kamila Stösslová. There were a few problems; Janáček was over 40 years older than Kamila, both were married to their own partners, and this type of relationship was really only in Janáček’s own mind. This work over four movements is really a tone poem of his ultimately futile hopes and dreams.
Last, but not least, today was the performance of Smetana String Quartet No. 1 in E minor. Written in 1876, this work is towards the end of Czech composer Bedřich Smetana’s life in 1884 and it is really a musical record of his life. We start with his love of music and in particular folk dances. As his status as a musician grows and he moves up through the ladder of society, these dances change to waltzes. Fate, however, has a sting in its tail for Smetana, perhaps the worst for any composer as he suffers from tinnitus in his ears and eventually becomes deaf. This work was written at a period in his life when he had lost his hearing.
This work gives us Smetana’s love of life and music and his fears at not being able to hear that music anymore and Fibonacci Quartet capture all of these emotions so well. Making this work even more personal was the fact that one of the quartet comes from Smetana’s home town.
Watching where Fibonacci Quartet go next in their already successful musical career will be an interesting journey for audiences in the years ahead.
Review by Tom King © 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
All of the music in this concert programme - Helen Grime String Quartet No.1 (2014), Janáček String Quartet No.2 ‘Intimate Letters’ (1928) and Smetana String Quartet No. 1 in E minor, ‘From my Life’ (1876) was very personal to its creators and, for me, this concert was not only an introduction to a new quartet, but also music that I was not that familiar with.
Fibonacci Quartet originally formed at the Guildhall School of Music in London, but since then these four talented musicians, still very much in the early years of their professional career, have been establishing a solid reputation for their music across Europe and further afield. Along the way they have also won some prestigious musical awards.
This quartet are obviously more than capable of playing any of the music that you would normally expect to be in a string quartet’s repertoire but, as this concert proves, they also like playing some unexpected music and maybe challenging a little bit how many people imagine a classical string quartet should sound.
The first of these works, Helen Grime String Quartet No.1 (2014), with a performance time of approximately 15 minutes, is actually three movements performed without a break between them. This work was written by the composer after giving birth to her son Simon in 2013.
The second work, Janáček String Quartet No.2 ‘Intimate Letters’ (1928) was originally composed as a commission for the Bohemian Quartet and it is from one perspective a massive emotional outpouring from Janáček to his relationship with one woman Kamila Stösslová. From another perspective it is a rather sad tale of obsessiveness from Janáček to a much younger woman. Over the course of their relationship Janáček wrote over 700 letters to Kamila Stösslová. There were a few problems; Janáček was over 40 years older than Kamila, both were married to their own partners, and this type of relationship was really only in Janáček’s own mind. This work over four movements is really a tone poem of his ultimately futile hopes and dreams.
Last, but not least, today was the performance of Smetana String Quartet No. 1 in E minor. Written in 1876, this work is towards the end of Czech composer Bedřich Smetana’s life in 1884 and it is really a musical record of his life. We start with his love of music and in particular folk dances. As his status as a musician grows and he moves up through the ladder of society, these dances change to waltzes. Fate, however, has a sting in its tail for Smetana, perhaps the worst for any composer as he suffers from tinnitus in his ears and eventually becomes deaf. This work was written at a period in his life when he had lost his hearing.
This work gives us Smetana’s love of life and music and his fears at not being able to hear that music anymore and Fibonacci Quartet capture all of these emotions so well. Making this work even more personal was the fact that one of the quartet comes from Smetana’s home town.
Watching where Fibonacci Quartet go next in their already successful musical career will be an interesting journey for audiences in the years ahead.
Review by Tom King © 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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