GREAT CHINA TOUR CHAMBER MUSIC Meta4 String Quartet, Finland, 2010 | Meta4 String Quartet, Finland, 2010 |
  Tour Dates
Tour Dates: 7 Mar - 17 Mar, 2010 “...their energy is quite uncommon, and this was a perfectly planned programme.” Antti Tikkanen - violin Meta4, formed in 2001, is one of the most internationally succesful Finnish string quartets. In 2004 Meta4 won first prize in the International Shostakovich Quartet Competition in Meta4 has performed in, among others, The quartet has studied under Hatto Beyerle and Johannes Meissl. Meta4 has also attended the Minna Pensola plays a Bellosio violin from 1770, owned by the Local Cooperative Bank of Sysmä. Tomas Djupsjöbacka’s Postiglione cello (1857) is kindly on loan from luthier Ilkka Wainio. The quartet also has two instruments on loan from the Pohjola Bank Art Foundation: Antti Tikkanen plays a Stradivarius violin from 1702 and Atte Kilpeläinen has a Guidantus viola (1737). The quartet released a Haydn recording on Hänssler Classics in May 2009. Meta4 performs regularly in key music capitals and concert halls around the world. In 2009 the quartet has invitations to Reviews
“In this wonderful performance the music's epic scale emerged with unforced strength and grandeur.” “…you can almost hear their body language: straining towards each other, constantly renewing the energy of their repartee… Meta4 maximised the frisson factor of this spiritual winter journey, setting up dry, spectral tremolandi like a chill wind. Antti Tikkanen’s first violin glanced off each fragment of melody like high-latitude sun off ice. And, with no hint of slowing in that hesitant second theme, the players maintained a delicate and uneasy tension to the end.” “But the best concert – at least to my somewhat overstimulated mind – featured only string quartets… Meta4 delivered a mesmerising version of Haydn's wonderful D major Op 20 Quartet...” “Their performance of Haydn’s op.20/4 got things off to a cracking start. The players obviously loved every minute of this early work, and this was a very thoughtful and enjoyable account. They fully understood the humour of the piece and gave the first movement a cohesion many have missed, welding the slow repeated chordal idea with the more energetic sections, and making a whole of the structure. It was delightful. The slow movement with its various groupings of duo and trio was well placed and the rhythms of the zingarese minuet had a real kick to them. The finale was a race, but it never became hectic, and their handling of the “take it or leave it” ending was a real joy. Super stuff.” “The first of these was a new quintet comprising pianist Ingrid Fliter plus a young Finnish quartet calling themselves Meta4: in their hands, Schumann’s Piano Quintet came over with unusual warmth and vividness...” “This was one of COLF 2009's finest hours, actually nearer an hour and a quarter. One of the best string quartets before the public… They are supersensitive, with impeccable intonation, achieved by careful, unusually prolonged tuning. Their energy is quite uncommon, and this was a perfectly planned programme.” “Meta4 was outstanding. Its performance of Sibelius's only mature string quartet, written aged 43 and one of the greatest string quartets ever written, was breathtaking and authoritative - monumental” |
