Music & Projects
Here are some of the many things we've got up to in the last few years...
The Virtuoso Violin
The legendary violin double act of Simon Hewitt Jones and David Worswick playing far too many notes very very quickly. Formed in the heat of undergraduate study at the Royal Academy of Music, the partnership went on to survive three years of driving up and down the country in a little Renault Clio, performing the music of Paganini, Wieniawski, and Kreisler in hospices and schools as part of Yehudi Menuhin's Live Music Now recital scheme as well as a national tour. Several years later, David having joined the London Symphony Orchestra and Simon having started ViolinSchool, 'VV' reformed for a series of reunion concerts in 2012. And so it continues... Read More >>
The Classical Sessions
In the right environment, anyone can enjoy the Classics... no specialist knowledge needed! 'The Classical Sessions' features great classical music presented informally in a punchy, energetic and accessible style - suitable for everyone!
Originally commissioned for a residency at the Henley Festival, the 'Sessions' are our way of exploring how context and presentation of a performance can support and enhance the experience of listening to Classical Music for people who are unfamiliar with the genre.
The project was created on the principle that Classical music is, like any other music, a bunch of sound waves. Sure, it may be quite a complex set of soundwaves, but the more you know about it the more you can listen out for, and the more you might enjoy it. Tweaks to the context and presentation help audiences to relate better to the complex music that we play, through use of multimedia presentation techniques. We believe it's possible to make Classical music accessible without ‘dumbing down’ or resorting to gimmicks. Or indeed changing the music itself and ending up with some kind of mediocre ‘crossover’ music.
The message of The Classical Sessions is: You can still enjoy the classics, even if you don’t know much about it!
Originally commissioned for a residency at the Henley Festival, the 'Sessions' are our way of exploring how context and presentation of a performance can support and enhance the experience of listening to Classical Music for people who are unfamiliar with the genre.
The project was created on the principle that Classical music is, like any other music, a bunch of sound waves. Sure, it may be quite a complex set of soundwaves, but the more you know about it the more you can listen out for, and the more you might enjoy it. Tweaks to the context and presentation help audiences to relate better to the complex music that we play, through use of multimedia presentation techniques. We believe it's possible to make Classical music accessible without ‘dumbing down’ or resorting to gimmicks. Or indeed changing the music itself and ending up with some kind of mediocre ‘crossover’ music.
The message of The Classical Sessions is: You can still enjoy the classics, even if you don’t know much about it!
The Juliet Letters
A new project for 2015 featuring the classic suite 'The Juliet Letters' for vocalist and string quartet, as originally written and performed by Elvis Costello and The Brodsky Quartet.
More info coming soon!
More info coming soon!
Four Seasons
A classic programme of the famous Four Seasons by Vivaldi, and the Four Seasons of Buenos Aires by Piazzolla, featuring Simon Hewitt Jones on violin. Performed by 5Q at the Barbican Centre and Kensington Palace during 2012, and now available as a standalone concert programme, or with new pieces by contemporary composers, inspired by ecology and the seasons.
Not a hotel chain or a pizza, but an uplifting, high-energy programme full of brilliant melodies.
Not a hotel chain or a pizza, but an uplifting, high-energy programme full of brilliant melodies.
Road to Jericho
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A celebration of British and Palestinian music, bringing together the instruments and musical languages of East and West.
R2J includes recordings and live concerts of newly commissioned pieces of music including 'Who Is My Neighbour?' by Antony Pitts. It’s also a multimedia project featuring film, poetry, prose and photography, and live events which have taken place in the UK, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. 5Q is very grateful to Deutsche Bank and Aldeburgh Music for their generous support of the Road to Jericho project.
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MP3 - Live @ Spitalfields Festival:Palestinian singer Oday Khatib perform "Ya Naseem el-Reeh" ("The Breeze") by Marcel Khalife at the Spitalfields summer music festival in 2012, with Fifth Quadrant: Click to Play
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Towards Silence
Towards Silence is a piece by Sir John Tavener for four string quartets and a tibetan bowl. It is a meditation on the different states of life and death, and an immensely powerful tour de force that has been performed to great effect in several of the UK's great cathedrals, and other majestic buildings including the Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow.
Links:
Review from The Guardian | John Tavener talks about Towards Silence
Links:
Review from The Guardian | John Tavener talks about Towards Silence
Fifth Quadrant rehearsing with Paul Robertson (right) of the Medici Quartet, in advance of the first performances of Towards Silence.
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Other Projects
The Best of British Music
A feast from the United Kingdom: chamber music by Britten, Bridge, Vaughan Williams, and Purcell through to the most exciting British composers of today. Includes music from Simon and Daniel's CD, 'Imogen Holst: String Chamber Music', winner of the 2010 BBC Music Magazine 'Premiere' award. Love the oboe? 5Q welcomes our wonderful colleague Demetrious Karamintzas, former lead oboe of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra (with one of the roundest, warmest oboe tones you'll find anywhere!), to perform the brilliant repertoire of oboe and strings including Benjamin Britten's 'Phantasy' Oboe Quartet No.1.
Concertante
Perhaps the greatest work ever written for Violin, Viola and Orchestra, Mozart's Duo Concertante is the core of our exciting new project, which also features an orchestral transcription of the Handel-Halvorsen Passacaglia as an encore. No orchestra? The recital version of the programme includes Mozart's Duo K.423, Bach's Inventions, and the beautiful Madrigals by Bohuslav Martinu.
Imogen Holst: String Chamber Music
A recording by Court Lane Music (the performance ensemble part of which eventually evolved into today's Fifth Quadrant), which won the BBC Music Magazine 'Premiere' award in 2010.
Imogen Holst is probably best known as the daughter of the guy who wrote The Planets, but as this recording demonstrated, there was so much more to who she was as a musician.
Links:
Review from The Guardian |
Imogen Holst is probably best known as the daughter of the guy who wrote The Planets, but as this recording demonstrated, there was so much more to who she was as a musician.
Links:
Review from The Guardian |
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