London Chamber Ensemble (String Quartet)

MADELEINE MITCHELL (violin)

GORDON MACKAY (violin)

BRIDGET CAREY (viola)

JOSEPH SPOONER (cello)

Haydn

String Quartet in C major Op33 #3 - The Bird

Howells

String Quartet - In Gloucestershire

Ravel

String Quartet in F major M 35

London Chamber Ensemble Quartet

This string quartet of outstanding and experienced British chamber musicians was formed in 2019. Highlights have included late Beethoven for the 250th anniversary and an invitation to perform at the Howells and Stanford annual festival. This led to their album ‘Howells & Wood Quartets’ (SOMM), all premiere recordings of music c1916 by Herbert Howells and his teacher Charles Wood, released October 2024, widely praised by the press (“expertly played” - Fiona Maddocks, The Observer) and featured on BBC Radio 3 In Tune.

Madeleine Mitchell won a Royal Philharmonic Society Enterprise Award in 2022 for her creative project linking art and music in film including her Anglo-Russian LCE String Quartet introduced concert programme with the V&A exhibition Fabergé: Romance to Revolution including the Borodin String Quartet no.2 (on YouTube). A return invitation followed, again sold out, for their quartet concert ‘French Impressions’ with the V&A Chanel exhibition.

They performed at the Austrian Cultural Forum and opened Kensington & Chelsea Music Society 2022/23 season in a sold out concert at Leighton House with the Quartet no.5 by Joseph Horovitz in tribute to the composer and Brahms Clarinet Quintet: ‘superb high-quality chamber music-making’ Musical Opinion. Other recent quartet concerts include the Schubert Society of GB and the Highgate Festival, and they recorded a work by Effy Efthimiou. In 2024 they performed at prestigious events including London’s Glaziers Hall and at the US Embassy London for the Fulbright Commission.. They performed in the international Red Violin Festival, Leeds including the European Premiere of Heggie/Scheer ‘Intonations’ - Songs from the Violins of Hope (with Sian Griffiths and Chloe Hanslip) as well as Howells, reviewed in The Catholic Herald: “Anybody who loves early 20th century English music needs to know about this piece and cherish it" (Howells “In Gloucestershire” Earlier Version). Tours in ‘24/25 include South Wales and Scotland, Music in Country Churches and HHH Concerts amongst others.

Previous London Chamber Ensemble recordings include Grace Williams Chamber Music for Naxos, no.2 in the Classical Charts and Guardian CD of the Week: ‘Passionate and persuasive advocacy…more please” Gramophone.

Madeleine Mitchell founded the London Chamber Ensemble in 1992 at the request of the Vale of Glamorgan Festival to perform Messiaen Quartet for the End of Time, with pianist Joanna MacGregor, which they went on to play at the BBC Proms and to record what became the widely recommended version for many years. ‘An all star group which manages to outdo all its rivals’ (Gramophone). The flexible group has given many broadcasts, concerts and workshops internationally and made a well received recording of William Alwyn Chamber Music and Song for Naxos.