The Fitzwilliam String Quartet's Anniversary Recording

The Fitzwilliam String Quartet celebrates its 50th anniversary season in 2018/9. Linn is marking this remarkable milestone with a new recording scheduled for release in autumn 2019.

Fittingly this anniversary recording will look back to the music which launched FSQ to international prominence, Shostakovich’s string quartets. Shostakovich entrusted FSQ with the Western premières of the last three quartets, and before long they had become the first ever group to perform and record all fifteen. These recordings gained many international awards and FSQ’s pre-eminence in the interpretation of these works has persisted. Benjamin Britten reported after Shostakovich’s death in 1975 that the composer had told him FSQ were his “preferred performers of my quartets”.