THE K-W RECORD
15 NOVEMBER 2006

Penderecki finds time for CD
By JAN NARVESON

The Penderecki Quartet is no stranger to music lovers in the Waterloo Region, performing often at its home base of Wilfrid Laurier University, elsewhere in the community, and now in the Lincoln concert series.

What area patrons might not know, however, is that the Penderecki Quartet is as well known abroad, and across Canada, as it is here.
In 2006 alone. it has toured in California and Mexico; Spain. France and Italy; closer to home in Leith, Ottawa, Parry Sound, Oakville, Barrie and Toronto; and further afield in Newfoundland, Montreal and British Columbia.

In short, this is one busy quartet - especially since its touring schedule alternates with extensive teaching duties at the Faculty of Music at WLU, where it has been in the quartet in residence for the last 13 years.

Area patrons also might not be aware of the Penderecki Quartet's many CD recordings. Of special interest, though, is its most recent release, the complete Bartok Quartets.

The quartet committed this difficult but rewarding six-work cycle to a two-CD set that has met with critical acclaim.
Fanfare Magazine rates it the first Canadian recording of this cycle, with the finest familiar recordings by the famous Juilliard and Emerson Quartets.

James North writes in the September issue. "The Penderecki String Quartet triumphs anew in these quartets, sounding like pure Bartok at every moment.

The program for the Penderecki Quartet's Friday night performance at St Columba's is Haydn's great final quartet, Op 77 No. 2 the lush romantic work by Borodin, Quartet No. 2; and Leos Janacek's hair raising quartet No.I, Kreutzer Sonata.

The quartet's new Bartok CD will be available at the concert, the first in the Lincoln Concert Series which is being run by University of Waterloo mathematics professor Peter Roe, and is designed to 'feature outstanding artists in folk, jazz and classical music.'

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