Quator Magenta will be performing a recital in Toronto on December 1. The quartet, based in Paris, France, is bringing a mixed program of contemporary and traditional repertoire to the Kingston Road United Church as part of the Kingston Road Village Music Series.
The musicians are Ida Derbesse (1st violin), Elena Watson-Perry (2nd violin), Claire Pass-Lanneau (viola), and Fiona Robson (cello).
London, Ontario born and currently, Paris, France based cellist Fiona Robson is a co-founder of Magenta. We spoke to her about her musical journey from London to Paris, and the music they’ll be bringing on tour.
Cellist Fiona Robson
“My very first instrument was the piano,” recalls Fiona Robson, cellist and co-founder of Quator Magenta. She remembers growing up surrounded by a musical family, where most members played the piano, and her sister played the violin. “I wanted to be her,” she laughs. It led to studying violin as well, but at some point, she came across a child-sized cello, one of several that had been donated to an organization locally. She made the switch on the precocious reasoning that it might be easier to get work playing in an orchestra.
She began with private studies in London, where she performed as a soloist with the London Youth Orchestra, London Community Orchestra, and London Concert Band. She followed up with a Bachelor’s degree from McGill University, where she studied with noted cellist Matt Haimowitz, and performed in his Grammy-nominated ensemble Uccello on an international tour.
During her time at McGill, she was a founding member of the Lafontaine String Quartet. They would go on to win the 2018 McGill University chamber music competition, and place as semi-finalists of the 2019 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition.
During the summer before her final year of school, she crossed paths with someone who talked up the idea of applying to the Paris Conservatory, and she decided to take the plunge. “I spoke some French already,” she says. It made Paris seem less intimidating than Germay, Italy, or other European options — a move across the Atlantic that had always been her dream.
“I did my Master’s from 2019 to 2021,” she says “They gave us an extra year because of the large COVID interruption.” Fiona completed her Master’s degree in cello performance at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris in 2022.
Quator Magenta was founded during that second year, just after the end of the first lockdown period. The four musicians, while attending the same school, hadn’t met previously.
“Our first violinist, she was looking around for people to do a string quartet with,” Fiona says. Word of mouth led her to the opportunity.
“But, we all had this dream, especially after COVID. We were feeling the need to play together […] a lot.”
The Quator placed as finalists in the Haydn Competition in Vienna in March 2023, and they have plans for more competitions in 2025, along with a full schedule of concerts in France and elsewhere in Europe, including a performance with Gautier Capuçon at his festival Un Été en France, and at the String Quartet Biennale at the Philharmonie de Paris, among others.
That’s on top of their graduate studies with the Ébène Quartet in Munich.
Canadian Tour 2024
The current tour will be the first for Quator Magenta in Canada, but Robson herself has returned frequently to perform, including duet recitals and house concerts with pianist Raymond Truong, a connection she made while performing at ScotiaFest in Halifax.
“With him I’ve been almost yearly doing little recital tours in Canada,” she says. “We premiered this piece by Christopher Goddard written for us.” The work, as she describes it, was inspired by a painting by the composer’s great uncle, Canadian painter Walter Tandy Murch. She’s hoping to give the work its European premiere this season with French pianist Elsa Bonnet, who is a frequent collaborator. As part of Duo Névé with Bonnet, Robson was invited to perform at the Concours International de Musique de Chambre de Lyon in April 2022.
Fiona is a champion of contemporary music, and commissioned an original piano reduction for Philip Glass’ Cello Concerto No. 1, in 2018, along with Goddard’s piece, the four-movement suite Murch Studies, in 2023.
For their Toronto concert, Quator Magenta will be performing Haydn’s Emperor Quartet, Ligeti’s “Metamorphoses Nocturnes”, and Schumann’s String Quartet No.1, Op.41 No.1. It’s a program, as she describes it, “in constant flux between dramatic darkness and pure musical sunshine”.
“The main body of this program, the two centre pieces are Ligeti’s […] and Schumann’s first string quartet.”
The quartet performed the Ligeti Metamorphoses Nocturnes at the Haydn competition. “We really learned it and got deep into it,” she says. “It’s a totally magical piece. It’s a crazy piece.” She cites the pieces vibrant colours and effects. “There’s so much humour in it too. I loved learning it.” Fiona says that audiences love it back.
It’s the surprise element in the programming. “They think it’s the Haydn they’ll love,” Robson says. She’s seen first hand the way audiences respond to Ligeti’s musical inventiveness. “It really makes people’s imaginations come to life.”
The Quator has been working on the Schumann quartet for this season as a concert piece.
“We find it pairs well with the Ligeti,” she says, noting the juxtaposition of musical lightness and darkness in Schumann’s work. It’s a different sound world, one that leads you on an emotional roller coaster.
The addition of Haydn’s Emperor quartet is a nod to the historical tradition. “We love Haydn as the base of string quartet playing,” Robson says. “It’s always an opportunity to put as much personality into the work as possible. It’s a playground for us,” she adds. “The slow movement of this piece is a special one.”
The movement features a theme and variations around the German national anthem, in a kind of historical echo of Ligeti’s very contemporary treatment of theme and variations structure.
“They’re very, very different pieces, but there are little connecting threads that loop through it.”
Quatuor Magenta perform the Allegro Molto Moderato from Henriëtte Bosmans’ Quatuor à cordes:
For audiences who see the Quator Magenta in Waterloo, where audiences have heard the same Ligeti work performed by another ensemble last season, the program will substitute a work by Dutch composer Henriëtte Bosmans (part of their emphasis on women composers). Bosmans (1895 to 1952) was influenced by Debussy and the Impressionists.
On some of their dates, the Quator will be performing Yessori (Sound from the Past) for String Quartet by Korean composer Soo Yeon Lyuh. It’s a piece they learned to perform at a string quartet festival in Paris at an event organized by Kronos Quartet, and part of their 50 For the Future project promoting and supporting new works.
Performing new repertoire, however, can be problematic, from finding the scores and non-existent examples to work with, to selling tickets. “It’s just so intimidating. There’s a lot of roadblocks to contemporary music.”
That’s where the Kronos project comes into the picture. “The big surprise is that I get a solo on the gong,” she laughs.
Robson is excited to bring her colleagues to her hometown and country.
“They’re all really looking forward to it,” she says.
They’re hoping it’s just the beginning of many Canadian tours.
- Find out more details about their dates in London, Kitchener Waterloo, and Toronto on December 1 (and the tour proceeds east to Montreal, Hinchinbrooke QC, and Halifax) [HERE].
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