”One of today’s best quartets in the world...Balance, transparency, symphonic comprehension, confident style, their performance reached a very high and inspiring level” (Süddeutsche Zeitung).
Famous for its energy and passion, Paris-based Modigliani Quartet brings a stylish precision to its performances of the most exquisite chamber music in the string quartet repertoire. Add in Italian pianist Fabio Bidini, known “as a master teacher, chamber musician, and among the best concert pianists of his generation” (Sarasota Herald-Tribune) to the ensemble, and you have a night of chamber music bliss.
Concert Details
Estimated duration: 2 hours
Brief welcome remarks
Joaquín Turina – La Oración del torero (The Toreador's Prayer)
9 min
Ludwig van Beethoven – String Quartet No. 8 in E Minor, Op. 59 ‘Razumovsky’, No. 2
38 min
Intermission
20 min
Johannes Brahms – Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op. 34
43 min
Listen to the music on Spotify
All timings are approximate. Program and artists subject to change.
Featured Performers
Modigliani Quartet
Amaury Coeytaux and Loic Rio, violins
Laurent Marfaing, viola
François Kieffer, cello
Founded in 2003, the Modigliani Quartet is recognised as one of today’s most sought- after quartets, featuring regularly in prominent international series and on the world’s most prestigious stages.
In addition to annual tours in the United States and in Asia, the quartet’s numerous European tours have brought them to Wigmore Hall, the Paris Philharmonie, the Théâtre des Champs- Elysées, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Saint-Petersburg Philharmonia and the Elbphil-harmonie in Hamburg.
After reviving the Rencontres Musicales Evian in 2014, of which they assured the artistic direction for 8 years, the quartet was entrusted with the artistic direction of the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition in 2020. As part of their festival “Vibre !”, the quartet counts some of the great-est quartets and chamber music ensembles amongst their guests artists. Through masterclasses and workshops, the festival provides an ideal environment to work with and mentor the young gen-eration, a mission at the heart of the quartet’s activities. The quartet is also the founder of the Saint-Paul-de-Vence Festival and the Arcachon Chamber Music Festival, both created in 2011.
The Modigliani Quartet’s rich collaboration with the record label Mirare has led to 15 recordings rep-resentative of their vast repertoire (Schubert, Mozart, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Bartok...), winning numerous awards in France and abroad (Choc de Classica, Diapason d’Or...). On the occasion of their last recording release, the prestigious British magazine“The Strad”selected the quartet as their cover feature.
The Modigliani Quartet also performs and commissions a wide range of contemporary works from composers including Marc-Antony Turnage, Philippe Hersant, Peter Vasks, Kaija Saariaho and Evgeny Kissin.
A year after their founding, the Modigliani Quartet won three First Prizes successively at the Eindhoven International Competition (2004), the Vittorio Rimbotti in Florence (2005) and the prestig-ious Young Concert Artists Auditions in New York (2006). Following studies with the Ysaÿe Quartet and masterclasses with Walter Levin and Gyorgy Kurtag, the Modigliani Quartet were invited to work with the Artemis Quartet at the Berlin Universität der Künste.
The quartet enjoys cultivating close friendships with their chamber music partners, amongst them artists such as Sabine Meyer, Renaud and Gauthier Capuçon, Jean-Frédéric Neuberger, Beatrice Rana, Michel Dalberto, Fazil Say, Augustin Dumay, Amihai Grosz, Gary Hoffman, Paul Meyer, Michel Portal and Daniel Müller-Schott.
The Modigliani Quartet also thanks the SPEDIDAM for its help.
Through the support of generous sponsors, the Modigliani Quartet has the privilege of playing four magnificent Italien instruments. Amaury Coeytaux plays a 1715 violin by Antonio Stradivarius "Prince Léopold", Loïc Rio plays a 1780 violin by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, Laurent Marfaing plays a 1660 viola by Luigi Mariani, François Kieffer plays a 1706 cello by Matteo Goffriller.
Fabio Bidini, piano
Fabio Bidini today is recognized as one of the most important pianists and pedagogues. Bernard Holland of the New York Times stated: “He is capable of an admirable simplicity…truly touching.”
At the age of five he was given his first piano lessons and, a half year later, he had his first public performance. In the following years he won 11 of the most important Italian piano competitions, including always the Audience Prize as well as all the special prizes.
He made his final graduation as “Magna cum Laude” and was one of the youngest graduates ever of the prestigious “Conservatorio Santa Cecilia” in Rome. Pianists who made a significant contribution to his artistic development were Orazio Frugoni and Maria Tipo.
After winning top prizes in the most famous international piano competitions, his sensational success at the Busoni and at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition opened him the door to a constantly growing international career.
His outstanding piano playing that combines technical wizardry with poetic lyricism and his fascinating culture of the attack of the keyboard brought him to have a glowing London debut in the Barbican Center with the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas in the presence of Sir Georg Solti. Shortly after, he performed at the United Nation as a soloist of the BBC Wales and had his highly acclaimed North American debut with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra under Joel Levi.
Since then Mr. Bidini has been a frequent guest of the most prominent orchestras worldwide (San Francisco Sympony, Dallas Symphony, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, The Philharmonia Orchestra of London, BBC Orchestra Wales) playing in the world´s most famous concert halls (Carnegie Hall, Kimmel Center Philadelphia, Kennedy-Center Washington, Royal Festival Hall, Davies Hall, Tonhalle Zürich, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Rudolfinum, Auditorio Nacionál-Madrid, Auditorio de Zaragoza, Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, among others).
He has also collaborated with leading conductors of our time, including Michael Tilson Thomas, Ivan Fischer, Andrey Boreyko, Zoltan Kocsis, Eri Klas, GianAndrea Noseda, Barry Wordsworth, Yoel Levi, Pavel Kogan, Louis Lane, Tadaaki Otaka, Mathias Bamert, Jesus Lopez Cobos, JoAnn Falletta, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Max Valdes, Keri-Lynn Wilson, Michael Christie, Carlos Prieto, Rossen Milanov among others.
He has been repeatedly invited to perform at prestigious festivals, such as the Tuscan Sun Festival Cortona/ Napa, Festival Radio France Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon, La Roque d’Anthéron International Piano Festival, Stern Grove Festival, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli International Piano Festival, Festival dei Due Mondi, Grant Park Festival Chicago.
Mr. Bidini is also greatly in demand as a chamber music partner. He has enjoyed artistic collaboration with the American String Quartet, the Janacek Quartet, the Brodsky Quartet, the Szymanowski Quartet, the Modigliani Quartet, Zoltan Kocsis, Nikolaj Znaider, Johannes Moser, Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, Paula Robison, Corey Cerovsek, Wendy Warner, Eva Urbanova, Eva Mei, Nina Kotova, Alexis-Pia Gerlach, Maria Bachmann, Dimitri Ashkenazy e Sabrina-Vivian Höpcker. He has formed a formal duo with Ms. Hopcker, and, with the publication of their debut CD of sonatas of S.Prokofieff and R.Strauss, they have laid the foundations for extensive collaborations with the US American label True Sounds.
Mr. Bidini’s discography comprises of 14 CDs of leading recording companies such as BMG, Naxos, Classichord, Musikstrasse, EPR, True Sounds, among others.
In 2005 Mr. Bidini accepted a professorship in the piano departement of the “Universität der Künste – Berlin”. In 2009 he won one of the most important chairs for piano in Germany at the “Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler” in Berlin.
In 2015 the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles founded the Carol Colburn Grigor Piano Chair for Fabio Bidini and he currently serves as faculty at the prestigious conservatory.
He is an official Steinway Artist.
Sample the Music
Joaquín Turina – La Oración del torero (The Toreador's Prayer)
Ludwig van Beethoven – String Quartet No. 8 in E Minor, Op. 59 ‘Razumovsky’, No. 2
Johannes Brahms – Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op. 34