The Hanover Square Quartet explores the string quartet repertoire on original instruments. We have an eye on historical research, and the other on the vitality and spontaneity that these composers demand.

Whilst Hanover Square Quartet is a new ensemble, formed during Lockdown, its members are musicians of maturity. Individually, the members of Hanover Square Quartet are amongst the top specialist players in the UK. They play with world leading period instrument groups, such as Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Hanover Band, Academy of Ancient Music, Gabrieli Consort, Arcangelo, I Fagiolini, and English Concert to name a few of the many.  

 
 
 
 

Hanover Square Rooms

The Hanover Square Rooms or the Queens Concert rooms were the foremost concert venue in London from the 1770s for a century. On the corner of Hanover Street, it was run by JC Bach and CF Abel, famous musicians in their day. Wilhelm Cramer and Johann Salomon ran concert series from there, as did the Philharmonic Society. Visiting performers included: Joseph Haydn, Hummel, Harriet Wainwright, Felix Mendelsohn, Liszt, Rubinstein, Joachim,Schumann to name a few. It was a veritable who's who of the great and good in the music world at the time. A later era saw it used by the Royal Academy of Music, and from 1868 for meetings of the women's suffrage movement.

 
 
 
 

Music from the 1770s to the 1900s

The quartet is named after this prestigious venue, which sums up the eras we play: music from the 1770s to the 1900s. Both music this venue might well have known, as well as championing female and lesser known composers: our own musical suffrage.