Quatuor Parisii, Masters Of Style And Technique, To Conclude NFoM Season

The members of Quatuor Parisii — Arnaud Vallin, first violin; Jean-Michel Berette, second violin; Dominique Lobet, viola; and Jean-Philippe Martignioni, cello — met as students at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, where the quartet was formed in 1984. Their success started in 1986, when they won the first prize at the Radio Canada Competition in Banff.

In 1987 they won the top prizes at both the Evian and Munich Chamber Music Competitions. Invitations followed from the major concert halls and festivals in Europe, and the Parisii has since toured regularly throughout Europe and the United Kingdom.

Highlights of the Parisii’s recent European seasons include concerts in Moscow, St Petersburg, Edinburgh, Lausanne, Barcelona, and Madrid.  Much in demand in Paris, the Parisii has been featured in a presentation of all the Haydn quartets at the Opéra Bastille, performed all of the Beethoven string quartets at the Salle Gaveau and appeared frequently at the Musée d’Orsay.

The remarkable thing about the quartet is that each player is quite capable of superlative solo performances, yet they blend with marvelous intimacy and mutually understood musicianship. Their playing has strength and tenderness, poetry and power. Newtown Friends of Music (NFoM) will welcome the quartet for the finale of NFoM’s 32nd season of concerts on Sunday, April 11. The quartet will perform at 3 pm in the auditorium of Edmond Town Hall, 45 Main Street in Newtown.

Quatuor Parisii Quartet has established itself as one of the finest of all French string quartets. Their playing is characterized by a warm spontaneity, with a radiant and impassioned expressiveness that seems to rise from the very heart of the central string-quartet tradition.

Noted for its performances of distinctive and unusual repertoire of the 18th through 21st Centuries, the Parisii has distinguished itself with award-winning recordings of intriguing works by such French composers as Menu, Pierné, Tailleferre and Raynaldo Hahn, as well as the complete works for string quartet by Anton Webern.

For their Newtown performance the musicians will perform an all-French program of music by Claude Debussy (Quartet in G minor, Op. 10), Ernest Chausson (Quartet in C minor, Op. 35) and Cesar Franck (Quartet in D Major).

Tickets are $20, and students in kindergarten through grade 12 are admitted free of charge when accompanied by a ticket-holding adult. The box office will open one hour before the start of the concert.

Plenty of free parking is available behind Edmond Town Hall and the facility is handicap accessible with all seating providing excellent viewing and acoustics. An elevator will take patrons to all three floors of the building.

An informal reception following the concert will offer concert goers the opportunity to mingle with the artists.

For additional information visit NewtownFriendsOfMusic.org or call 203-426-6470.