BBC Music Magazine: CD review, 2021
⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑
5 Stars: Recording of the Month, December 2021
“the ensemble play with real sincerity... the musicians seem to feel the music just as it is, complex on the surface but direct and straight from the heart... From their full-blooded yet flexible tone to their intelligent handling of the ebb and flow, {Eusebius Quartet} offer a joyous feast of Korngold at his finest.” - Jessica Duchen
“... all are played with an infectious sense of the music’s charm and wit... strongly personal yet authentically Viennese-sounding playing from the Eusebius foursome.” - Matthew Rye
“clear, slender-toned pleasure... what the Eusebius deliver here is convincing and stylish.” - Charlotte Gardner
MusicWeb International: CD review, 2021
“With their excellent dynamic palette and wealth of tone, the Eusebius Quartet, superbly aided and abetted by Beatson, give off a powerful impression of something far grander than a merefive instruments.” -Marc Rochester
Praised as “convincing and stylish” by Gramophone, the Eusebius Quartet was formed in 2016 out of a passion for the extraordinary music written for this formation. They have gained a reputation for imaginative performances possessing “full-blooded yet flexible tone” (BBC Music Magazine). Their debut CD, featuring the chamber music of Erich Wolfgang Korngold with pianist Alasdair Beatson, was released in October 2021 by SOMM Recordings to widespread critical acclaim, including being named as Recording of the Month by BBC Music Magazine in January 2022.
The London based string quartet has toured throughout Europe and to Santa Fe, USA, alongside more recent performances closer to home including appearances at Kings Place, Conway Hall and Glyndebourne. Recent highlights include performances of the Mendelssohn Octet with the Heath Quartet at the Tetbury Festival, and Vaughan Williams ‘On Wenlock Edge’ with tenor Nicky Spence at the Lewes Chamber Music Festival. In 2018 they were finalists in the Royal Over-Seas League Music Competition, and continue to frequently perform live on BBC Radio 3. They are regular guests at numerous chamber music festivals including the Lewes Chamber Music Festival, of which first violinist Beatrice Philips is the Artistic Director and founder. The quartet were awarded a residency at Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme at Snape Maltings in 2019, where they worked with one of their mentors, Hungarian pedagogue and pianist Rita Wagner. The residency culminated in performances as part of the Aldeburgh Festival.
The Eusebius Quartet has collaborated with many wonderful musicians including pianists Alasdair Beatson and Bengt Forsberg; clarinettists Matt Hunt and Michael Collins; oboist Daniel Bates; bassoonist Amy Harman and tenor Nicky Spence. The members of the quartet first met as teenagers and then again later at IMS Prussia Cove, reuniting as a quartet after completing their respective studies. Between them they bring influences from their rich and diverse musical backgrounds, having each studied at leading international conservatoires, namely the Juilliard School, New York, the Sibelius Academy, Helsinki, Royal Academy of Music and Guildhall School of Music, London and the Paris Conservatoire.
The quartet takes its name from one of the two fictional characters invented by Robert Schumann for his musical journal writings. These characters became symbolic of Schumann’s opposing moods: the fiery and impassioned Florestan contrasted the philosophical and dreamy Eusebius.
Recording at Menuhin Hall for SOMM Recordings, November 2020
Beatrice Philips
Based in London, Beatrice is a much sought after chamber musician, soloist, orchestral leader and teacher. In 2016 she founded the Eusebius Quartet with long-time chamber music colleagues with whom she has recorded quartets by Bartok, Haydn, Schubert and most recently Korngold. They were 2018 finalists at the Royal Overseas League competition and will took up a residency at Snape Maltings in Aldeburgh last Spring. The Eusebius Quartet’s debut album was released last autumn with SOMM Recordings: a collection of chamber music by Erich Korngold including the Piano Quintet with pianist Alasdair Beatson. The album received 5-star reviews from all major critics and was BBC Music Magazine’s ‘record of the month’.
Beatrice is a popular chamber music partner and appears often at chamber music festivals in and around Europe and the UK including most recently Fitzrovia Arts Festival, Wye Valley, Hatfield House, Kuhmo, Marsac, Festival Resonances, OCM Prussia cove and has been lucky to collaborate with many wonderful musicians. In 2012 Beatrice founded her own Chamber Music Festival in Lewes, which has run every year since, attracting such eminent artists as Bengt Forsberg, Iestyn Davies, Alina Ibragimova, Guy Johnston, Jonathan Cohen, Alasdair Beatson, Philip Higham and many, many more.
Beatrice is an enthusiastic teacher and has coached and run junior courses for MusicWorks Chamber Music. Together with the Eusebius Quartet she has organised tours of primary schools introducing chamber music and live performance to many young children; most recently in and around Lewes as a part of the Lewes Chamber Music Festival community outreach.
At home on both modern and period set-up Beatrice has led ensembles such as Arcangelo directed by Jonathan Cohen, the Multi-Story Orchestra, LCO and has played with the OAE under Roger Norrington, the ORR (& led) EBS under Sir John Eliot Gardiner and has been guest Principle and assistant Concertmaster with the Welsh National Opera on numerous occasions.
Recent solo performances include Bruch’s violin concerto at St John’s Smith Square in July, at the 40th anniversary Gala concert for the East Sussex Youth Orchestra with conductor Colin Metters and last Spring, Korngold’s violin concerto with the North London Symphony Orchestra.
Beatrice completed her undergraduate degree at Kings College London University in 2007 where she gained a 1st while simultaneously studying violin at the Royal Academy of Music with Howard Davis. For her post-graduate studies she went on to the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, taking a year out at the Conservatoire National de Superieur de Music in Paris where she had lessons with violinist Olivier Charlier.
Beatrice plays a violin by Spiritus Sorsana of Turin from c.1730.
Venetia Jollands
Venetia enjoys a career spanning many genres, from baroque to pop. Her versatility as a musician means she appears as a soloist, chamber musician, leader, session player and band member in a variety of settings. She has performed across Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the Americas with renowned ensembles and artists, most recently with the London Chamber Orchestra on their tour of South East Asia for Toyota Classics.
As a session musician, Venetia has recorded for artists such as Sampha, Bryce Dessner, Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Hans Zimmer, Jed Kurzel, Carly Paradis, Clean Bandit, Ellie Goulding and Boy George as a member of the London Contemporary Orchestra, Orchestrate, the 12 Ensemble and others. She has recently performed live with Nico Muhly, US rock band The National, Kate Tempest, Elena Tonra, Jonsi and Alex Somers and as a solo violinist with Russo, The Breeders and We Used to Make Things.Venetia has a great interest in fashion and art, and is fortunate to have performed at London Fashion Week (Le Kilt), Paris Fashion Week (Alexander McQueen), at the London Fashion Awards and aboard Cunard’s ‘Queen Mary 2’ for Transatlantic Fashion Week. She regularly appears on luxury cruise ships as a guest entertainer.
Whilst studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with David Takeno and Krysia Osostowicz, Venetia received First Class Honours, the Concert Recital Diploma and Donald Weekes Memorial Prize for her Undergraduate Degree, then achieving distinction for her Masters in Performance. Since graduating, Venetia has been a regular member of the 12 Ensemble, with whom she has toured to South Korea, Germany, Norway, Lanzarote and around the UK. She has been a member of the Eusebius Quartet since its formation in 2016 and regularly performs at chamber music festivals across the UK and Europe.
Venetia plays a violin by Francesco Gobetti (c.1710, Venice) on private loan, and a bow by W. E. Hill and Sons, generously loaned by the Harrison Frank Family Foundation.
Hannah Shaw
Violist Hannah Shaw (b. 1984, South Carolina, USA) enjoys a career spanning a wide variety of musical styles. As a chamber musician, Hannah has performed throughout Europe and the US as a member of The Hague String Variations and Trio De Kooning, as well as with such musicians as Liza Ferschtman, Dimitri Ferschtman, Atar Arad, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Gordan Nikolic, and Michel Strauss, among others; and she appears regularly at such festivals as Open Chamber Music at Prussia Cove, Festival de Musique de Chambre à Giverny, Grachten Festival, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, and Casalmaggiore International Festival.
Through her interest in contemporary music, Hannah performs regularly with the Asko|Schönberg Ensemble; has collaborated with such notable composers and conductors as Reinbert de Leeuw, Kaija Saariaho, Peter Eötvös, Huang Ruo, Heinz Holliger, Eliott Carter, Louis Andriessen, Sofia Gubaidulina, and James MacMillan; has had works written for her by Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw, Victoria Cheah, and Timo Andres; and has appeared in the Acht Brücken Festival, Saariaho Festival Den Haag, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Holland Festival, Juilliard's Focus! Festival, and MoMA's Summergarden series. With Trio De Kooning, she received a grant from the Netherlands-America Foundation for her presentation of contemporary works for string trio.
Hannah has also served as guest leader with a number of orchestras, including BBC National Orchestra of Wales, The Hague Philharmonic, and Arnhem Philharmonic; and can regularly be heard playing with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Nederlands Kamerorkest, and the Noord Nederlands Orkest.
Hannah received her Bachelor of Music degree with honors from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where she was a student of Roger Chase. She was awarded a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School, where she studied with Samuel Rhodes of the Juilliard String Quartet.
Hannah Sloane
Cellist Hannah Sloane enjoys an international career centered upon chamber music. She has participated in numerous festivals throughout UK, Europe and North America, and is the cellist of the Eusebius Quartet. Hannah has recorded for Navona, Stone and SOMM record labels. As part of Ensemble Arcadiana in 2019, she recorded a disc of chamber music by Eleanor Alberga, and also features on a recent Stone Records release of Bliss Oboe and Clarinet Quintets with the musicians of FitzFest, Fitzrovia’s Art Festival.
As a freelance cellist, Hannah has worked as guest principal cello with the Irish Chamber Orchestra, Spira Mirabilis and the Orchestra of Scottish Opera. In February 2020, she was honored to join the Orchestre Romantique et Révolutionnaire for their Beethoven Symphony cycle at Carnegie Hall in New York. Since 2013, she has regularly played as part of the London Chamber Orchestra, a recent highlight was touring with the orchestra to South East Asia in 2019 as part of the Toyota Classics series. Hannah regularly collaborates with EnSEmble26 and Faust Ensemble, both innovative chamber ensembles based in London. She has performed recitals with pianists; Sophia Rahman; Eleanor Meynell; Jillian Zack and Allegra Chapman; and as a concerto soloist has played with several orchestras in the UK and USA. With the Juilliard Orchestra in 2010, she played Tan Dun’s ‘Concerto for Six’ at Alice Tully Hall with the composer conducting.
Hannah studied at the Juilliard School in New York, graduating with Scholastic Distinction in 2013. In 2012, she was the recipient of a French American Exchange Grant from the Carla Bruni Sarkozy Foundation, which took her to study at the Paris Conservatoire. Now a passionate teacher herself, Hannah teaches cello and chamber music at Junior Royal Academy of Music.
Hannah plays a Luigi Piattellini cello dating 1780, kindly on loan to her from the Stark family, and a contemporary Paul Sadka bow.
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Thanks @ParkTheatre for having us in your brilliant space yesterday! Was fantastic to share #Bartok and #Elgar to a… https://t.co/a2mp1MUIIu -
Thanks @Fideliocaf for a fabulous full cafe of music-lovers at our concert the other night! Was a joy to share Elga… https://t.co/FqoZL6HOgL
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RT @through_t_noise: 🎻 @TheBeat23, @hmsloane, @venetiajollands, and Hannah Shaw of @EusebiusQuartet perform string quartets by Elgar and… https://t.co/Mia2qV6nEf