Major quartet loses founder after 56 years

The University of St Andrews, in Fife, has let it be known that the distinguished violist Alan George ‘has very recently stepped aside from an extraordinary 56-year association with the Fitzwilliam Quartet.’

There has been no announcement from the quartet and no change to their website. But every quartet has its own tempo and they may be talking longer to adjust.

Alan George can claim to be the longest serving string quartet player in the UK, if not the world.

Raised in Cornwall, he was principal viola for 11 years with John Eliot Gardiner’s Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. He is the author of four studies of Shostakovich’s chamber music and played in the first western recording of the complete string quartets, endorsed by the composer himself.

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