The Waldstein Quartet are promising a programme of English music

Current holders of the Philip Carne Junior Fellowship for a Chamber Ensemble at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, the quartet comprises Greta Papa (violin), Daniel Pukach (violin), Natalia Solis Paredes (viola) and Miguel Villeda (cello).

“We have been together just over two years,” Daniel says. “We started playing together after the lockdowns. We were put together at Trinity. We were all students there at the time and we were put together for a competition. The chamber music coordinator needed a quartet coming out of lockdown and there just wasn't a lot of time to prepare a quartet. It takes a lot of time to get to know each other and play together but all four of us had come to Trinity with previous experience as professionals and I think that was the rationale when they put us together. We were very lucky because it worked immediately. Back then people weren't even coming into the building as much because of the lockdowns and there were still a lot of people who were studying from home. Most people had never even met before but we were just lucky that it worked. At first it was just a question of looking and seeing and responding to each other. Every one was trying to find the balance between being expressive and supporting the others and it just went very well. It was just good fortune and that doesn't happen a lot. That was our first performance at Wigmore Hall. It was a really good experience and we just decided that we would continue working together as a quartet and we built up other performances and we're still together now. You can spend so much time analysing the music that sometimes it's good to just let go and enjoy it. If all the ingredients in quartets were the same, every quartet would be the same but for our quartet we bring to it a warm temperament, to each other, to rehearsals and to the music. We come from places with warm climates and warm temperaments and I think what happens when we come together is that we get that energy and that humanity and that emotion that comes from that.”

And that has certainly helped them in the very competitive world of chamber music: “There are so many good all ensembles in the UK. It's such a major hub for chamber music but there are so many people that love chamber music fortunately. The only way that all these fantastic groups in the UK can continue to play is because there are people out there willing to come along. Competition is good because it forces you to remain unique. If we were just trying to play well and to be good musicians that just would not be enough because we would be the same as everyone else. But what I see coming from the audience in their reaction to us is that there is a lot of pure emotional experience that we give in our performances, that temperament thing again and also the energy.”

Sat, July 29, St Mary the Virgin, North Stoke, BN18 9LS at 6.30pm. Tickets £18 in aid of the Churches Conservation Trust from Janet Aidin 01798 872531; [email protected].

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