Reviews

Musical Pointers

22 February 2010

The Sacconi Quartet is well up with their competitors, and their recorded account of the marvellous "Tost" Op. 54 set, with extended flights of fancy weaved for the eponymous commissioning merchant/violinist, has all the feeling of live music-making that cannot be taken for granted in studio recordings. Hearing three short samples on their website should convince you.

Musicweb International

22 September 2009

The performance of the Haydn Quartet was a superb achievement ... In the first movement, an amiable Allegretto leading into the medium paced allegro, they played with an effortlessness that shaded the transition from one tempo to the other smoothly, ensuring that there should be no jolt as the music changed. The slow movement is one of Haydn’s most deeply felt, and here the players clearly grasped all of the music's profundity. The minuet and trio were delightful, especially the trio which is led by the cello, and realising that the finale, although marked Presto, can lose some of its character if played too quickly, the quartet wisely chose a steadier pace which allowed them to bring out all of the humour and joy in the piece. The Sacconis have been together since 2001 and on the strength of this performance they deserve to go far. Who knows what they might achieve on reaching 70 themselves?

The Times

22 February 2009

In this performance by a fine young group with a beautiful blend of sound, the result was highly engaging.

The Spectator

22 October 2008

The young Sacconi Quartet rose wonderfully to such demands with sustained chording of great power and sweetness whose every nuance filled the sizeable space to its edges, creating the illusion of intimate closeness.

York Press

22 March 2008

The Sacconis have been together barely seven years, but there are wise heads on these young shoulders. Not for them the razzle-dazzle that so often tempts youthful groups. Of course they have solid techniques, but the music, rather than their own personalities, seems always uppermost in their approach.

The mood was intimate, wonderfully devoid of overstatement. The slow movement was utterly riveting, night music in the Bartok vein. The Sacconis are definitely here for the long term.

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

22 October 2007

In Haydn's Op.50 No.1 they maintained an excellent balance and a clear, identical articulation, which developed into a gentle relationship between tension and relaxation by means of many, neatly elaborated details. In a proper English manner, they also made the audience listen carefully to the Beethoven Quartet Op.18 No.4.Dynamically highly sophisticated…it was altogether delicately realized in the Viennese Haydn tradition.

The Times

22 June 2007

We heard Elgar's String Quartet in E minor, and the Piano Quintet in A minor for which the quartet were joined by Gary Matthewman. Both performances revealed the warmly attuned ensemble of this outstanding young quartet. And they caught to a nicety both the melancholy within Elgar's musical expression of the passage of time, and the impassioned energy of his own composing present. Ben Hancox, the quartet's leader, was accompanied by Matthewman in a movingly perceptive performance of Elgar's E minor Violin Sonata.