Divertimenti Ensemble
Divertimenti has become widely acclaimed as one of the most exciting and innovative British chamber groups of its generation. Originally established in London in 1978, the ensemble was re-launched in 1998 after a period of individual career development. Four of the players were founder members at its inception and all five are long-standing friends and top ranking players with a wealth of worldwide concert experience between them as soloists, orchestral principals and chamber musicians.
The core group is a quintet for two cellos. Schubert’s great C major Quintet forms the backbone of many programmes, while other exciting and beautiful quintets for this combination have been discovered. Divertimenti has a long tradition of breaking new ground with adventurous repertoire, and the championing of works by lesser known composers. In addition, Divertimenti can expand to sextets and octets, and adapt to perform quintets for two violas and also quartets, trios, duos and solos.
Touring throughout the UK and Ireland, the ensemble has appeared in major festivals such as Aldeburgh, Bath, King’s Lynn, Canterbury and Lichfield. Divertimenti has also given concerts in National Trust and other stately homes (Claydon House, Knole, Hanbury Hall, Firle Place and Ragley Hall) and abroad in Italy, France, Germany and Greece.
The ensemble’s recording activities have included numerous programmes for BBC Radio 3, notably live broadcast concerts at St.George’s Brandon Hill, Bristol and Pebble Mill, Birmingham. Early interest was attracted by a recording of chamber music by Colin Matthews, and of the Mozart Clarinet Quintet on the Meridian label. Two further recordings on the Hyperion label - Howells and Dyson Quartets, and Mendelssohn and Bargiel Octets - received unanimous praise from the critics; the latter was singled out for recommendation by BBC Radio 3’s Record Review and by International Record Review. Both recordings received recommendations from BBC Music Magazine and Classic FM as Record of the Month.
Divertimenti gave the second ever performance of Arnold Bax’s Quintet No.1, together with Dame Ethel Smyth’s Quintet, at the Lichfield Festival, both enthusiastically received, and subsequently recorded the Bax piece on the Dutton Epoch label – “a thoroughly likeable and valuable release” (Gramophone) and for BBC Ulster. Another discovery was the Beethoven ‘Kreutzer’ Quintet, a transcription for string quintet with two cellos of the famous violin sonata, published in 1932, with scores provided by the Beethovenhaus in Bonn. A recent addition to their exclusive repertoire is the Joseph Miroslav Weber Quintet, released on the Cello Classics label, together with the Brahms String Quintet in F minor (a reconstruction of the original instrumentation of his Piano Quintet Op.34) - “the lyrical flow in this beautiful account is unimpeded” (Sunday Times). Compelling masterworks of the Russian Romantic School by Catoire and Taneyev, as well as Glazunov’s sunny and Tchaikovsky-inspired string quintet, have also been added. The latest discovery which Divertimenti takes particular pleasure in uncovering is the quintet movement by the Danish follower of Mendelssohn – Niels Gade – a work which incorporates both the ardour and freshness of a composer at the beginning of his career. There are no parts in existence, and Divertimenti play from their own copies of the score.