Initiating the itinerary of this concert series co-produced by the IC, the Quiroga Quartet will play the first of three quartets composed by an exceedingly young Arriaga (16) upon his arrival in Paris in 1823, 4 years before his early death. This will be followed by Cristobal Halffter’s (1930) String Quartet No. 9 ‘In memoriam Miguel de Cervantes’, a work commissioned by Patrimonio Nacional and premiered by the Quiroga Quartet in September 2016. And finally Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera’s (1916-1983) first String Quartet Op. 20, inaugural work in what the composer himself would come to term his ‘subjective nationalist’ period.
Appointed quartet-in-residence in charge of the Royal Collection of decorated Stradivarius at Madrid’s Royal Palace, has established itself as one of the most dynamic and unique quartets of its generation, winning international acclaim from critics and audiences alike for its distinctive personality as well as its bold and original approach to the string quartet repertoire. The quartet honours the memory of galician violinist Manuel Quiroga.