In conversation with: Piatti Quartet

Piatti Quartet- Photo Credit Olwen Holland

In advance of our upcoming 'The Cloths of Heaven' concert on Tuesday 30 September as part of our Choral Discovery Series, we catch up with the Piatti Quartet!

Tell us a bit about yourselves! What is the best part about working as a string quartet, as opposed to other ensemble formats?

We've been a string quartet for a long time now- this September marks 20 years since two of us (Jessie and Michael) started music college in London and a tentative effort to start a string quartet began. We developed a deep love for the repertoire and even though we've played huge swathes of it, we're always surprised by how much more there is to discover out there. The best part of quartet has to be the wonderfully profound personal connection you make with your fellow colleagues over time- it's like having another family!

Can you describe your rehearsal process? How do you make interpretive decisions as a group?

Interpretive decision making has changed over time. We've gotten a lot more efficient since starting the quartet and we've now reached a stage where we are pretty democratic (though I suppose that depends who you ask!). There's a lot of outside listening, either by one person listening to the rest of us play or the dreaded voice memo recording on the iPhone which can sound all too real and revealing!

How does collaborating with a vocal ensemble shape or shift your approach? Or is it the same?

It's so amazing working with St.Martin's Voices. You have to be careful not to sit back and daydream while they are singing as you'll miss your next entry or get lost, but they really are mesmerizing to listen to! It's very helpful having Andrew conduct too, and there is something very special about the combination of quartet and choir, you can appreciate the subtleties and strengths of both groups.

Was there a particular piece from the upcoming programme ‘The Cloths of Heaven’ on 30th Sept that was especially challenging or surprising to prepare?

Yshani Perinpanayagam's Husk is quite a challenging work for us in a more unusual way. You have to channel an inner stillness and peace to make this work more effective. Sometimes the fewer notes there are on the page, the trickier it is! 

How do you sustain emotional intensity through a set of such contrasting works?

We've become better at this over time. Since the pandemic, concerts have taken on broader themes with more contrasting pieces. We've gotten used to jumping between say a late 20th work to a Baroque work to something romantic within 20 minutes. Having a choir actually helps, as there might be a bit more time to gather your thoughts between pieces.

Many of the composers are women or living composers- how important is that kind of representation to you as performers?

Promoting works by Women and living composers has been a huge part of our career. We've consistently premiered, commissioned and recorded new works for over 15 years now and the ethos fostered within St. Martin's Voices resonates very closely with our own. We've tried to right a few historical wrongs as a quartet, making the premiere recordings of works by composers Louise Farrenc and Ina Boyle- if they were men, they'd have been feted so much during their lifetimes. In the end, one gave up composing and the other withdrew completely from musical life and now we feel it's the right thing to do, to keep pushing for equality and also in retrospective action. 

What do you hope audiences take away from this performance?

We hope audiences walk away from this concert feeling excited, uplifted and curious to hear more. It is a 'Choral Discovery' concert after all and there's such an amazing wide array of repertoire, that we are hoping that you are bound to be enthralled by some, if not all of it!

If you had to pick one word to describe the concert on 30th September- what word would you choose?

Inspiring!

What other exciting things have you got coming up?

We are soon recording the string quartets of one of our favourite composers of all, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and we also have a project dedicated to the amazing quartet music used in film!

To find out more about the Piatti Quartet and what they will be up to over the coming months you can visit https://piattiquartet.com.

‘The Cloths of Heaven’ will be on Tuesday 30 September, 7pm at St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Visit our ‘what’s on’ page to book your tickets!