Tippett Quartet

Balancing both established classics and newer works has allowed the Tippett Quartet to earn recognition as one of the United Kingdom’s leading string ensembles. Its discography, however, has leaned heavily toward British music of the present day, especially pieces by Stephen Dodgson, Cecilia McDowall, and the group’s namesake, Michael Tippett. Reviewers and listeners alike have greeted both its concerts and its releases with strong approval. The ensemble has also devoted considerable energy to teaching initiatives aimed at younger players, offering workshops and master classes on string-quartet writing and related topics. In 2021 it released a complete account of Penderecki’s string-quartet output together with the composer’s string trio.

The quartet came together in 1998, adopting its name in the same week that Michael Tippett passed away. Its founding members were violinists Jeremy Isaac and John Mills, violist Maxine Moore, and cellist Bozidar Vukotic. Julia O’Riordan, already familiar from earlier expanded chamber projects, took Moore’s place in 2009; she in turn was succeeded in 2012 by Lydia Lowndes-Northcott. The group made its Wigmore Hall debut in 1998 and quickly attracted favorable attention. It has since appeared across Britain at the Royal Opera House, the Purcell Room, and the Royal Albert Hall, as well as at the Three Choirs, Cheltenham, and Lincoln International festivals. Regular broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 and appearances at the BBC Proms have been complemented by tours of Europe and North America. In 2007 the ensemble presented the British premiere of John Adams’s Fellow Traveler at Kings Place. With musicologist Roderick Swanston’s assistance it revived and first performed Gustav Holst’s Fantasy on British Folk Songs in 2013. Three years later the quartet commissioned Alissa Firsova to compose her Tennyson Fantasy, which received its premiere that year with actor Finbar Lynch reading the texts.

The Tippett Quartet has recorded for Naxos, EMI Classics, Decca, and additional labels. Its debut release, the soundtrack to Howard Goodall’s The Seasons, appeared on EMI Classics in 2006. Shortly afterward the group began a Naxos series devoted to Michael Tippett’s complete string quartets; the opening volume contained the First, Second, and Fourth, while the concluding installment, issued in 2009, presented the Third and Fifth—both sets earned widespread praise. Among its better-known projects is the 2011 Signum disc of Bernard Herrmann’s Psycho: Suite for String Quartet and other Herrmann scores, featuring clarinetist Julian Bliss. In 2018 the ensemble was featured on an album of Firsova’s music that included the Tennyson Fantasy. The same Penderecki collection that appeared in 2021 was also issued by Naxos. Since 2015 the quartet has served as ensemble-in-residence at Royal Holloway University, London, and at St. Edmund’s School, Canterbury.