PRESS ACCLAIM
 

"There's something intoxicating about the Elias String Quartet.... Intensely absorbing, exquisitely considered....stunning."
Philadelphia Inquirer

 

“Spectacular….a perfectly balanced mix of vitality, depth, formal elegance and that playful, flirtatious wit that makes all of Haydn’s quartets so impossible to resist....A bold, often thrilling performance.”

Washington Post

 

“Excellent….particularly memorable.”
“Their richly hued, passionate playing sounded both polished and spontaneous.”
“Superb…[Sara Bitlloch’s] playing was remarkable throughout, her bold, rich tone and expressive nuances contributing to an intense and deeply felt interpretation.”
New York Times

 

“It was the willingness to push the dramatic edge of the work, however, that transformed this performance into something extraordinary.”
Washington Post

“Few quartets at any stage of their evolution have this much personality.”
Philadelphia Inquirer

 

“This immensely talented string quartet has the rare quality of unforced spontaneity.”
Sunday Telegraph (London)

 

“Magic moments abound…[an] ability to live and breathe each phrase with an enraptured sensitivity.”
The Strad

 

“The Elias is the best young quartet I’ve come across in years … There were times during the Kings Place concerts when the Elias’s first violin, Sara Bitlloch, with her soaring confidence, dazzling high register, rhythmic energy and, above all, beautiful portamenti (slides between notes), brought Menuhin’s playing to mind.”
The Sunday Times (London)

 

“Many think this young quartet will be the next Amadeus, and these performances support such a view. Their mutual rapport is obvious and their performance of Mozart’s ‘Dissonance’ Quartet (K. 465) reveals a deep affinity with the composer.”
Sunday Telegraph (London)

 

“The musicianship of this young quartet is irresistible.”
The Observer (London)

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“the group showed a predilection for slow, shapely, breathable phrasing, and seemed to set the hall itself ringing”
The Strad

“These are highly sensitive, touching performances.”
Gramophone (Editor's choice)

“Imaginative, full-blooded playing and impeccable ensemble…triumphantly dramatic.”
Classic FM Magazine (Editor´s choice)

“The performances, recorded live at Wigmore Hall, have a refinement, vigour and emotional depth suggesting that the Elias Quartet has nothing further to aspire to. One could not reasonably ask for more searching, subtle, self-possessed, sheerly beautiful accounts of Mozart’s Dissonance quartet, K465, or Mendelssohn’s E minor quartet, Op 44, No 2, not to mention Schubert’s Quartettsatz. The players are individually brilliant, but their interplay is profound, and it is no doubt significant that first violin and cello, melody and bass, are sisters (Sara and Marie Bitlloch). The recording is ideally balanced for a string quartet.
” * * * *
The Sunday Times, May 2009

“The Elias Quartet can spin a phrase with love without smothering it, as the slow movement demonstrates, and the finale is an invitation to smile. Tempos are always convincing, the music articulate and clarified but never sterile.”
Classical Source, May 2009

 

“Outstanding”
The Guardian

“…pure magic”
The Sunday Telegraph

“marvellous playing….poetic, charismatic, virtuosic”
The Sunday Telegraph

“A heaven-storming performance….Big things lie ahead of them”
The Strad

“The Elias are a quite exceptional quartet.”
Harriet Smith, Gramophone, May 2007

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