GAC Music Management
Quartetto Noûs
A chamber group defying the odds of sound
My Bio
Sofia Manvati – violin
Alberto Franchin – violin
Sara Dambruoso – viola
Riccardo Baldizzi – cello
Noûs (nùs) is a Greek word whose meaning is ‘mind’, and thence ‘rationality’, but also ‘inspiration’ and ‘creativity’.
Quartetto Noûs , formed in 2011, has established itself in a short time as one of the most interesting chamber music ensemble of its generation.
Its immersive performances are the result of a professional training where the Italian tradition and the most influencial European schools are combined.
The quartet studied with the Quartetto di Cremona at the Accademia Walter Stauffer in Cremona, at the Basel Musik Akademie with Rainer Schmidt (Hagen Quartet), at the Escuela Superior de Música ‘Reina Sofia’ in Madrid and at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena with Günter Pichler (Alban Berg Quartet) and at the Lübeck Musikhochschule with Heime Müller (Artemis Quartet).
In 2014 Quartetto Noûs was selected to take part in the project ‘Le Dimore del Quartetto’ thanks to which it won a scholarship. During the same year it was awarded another important scholarship offered by the Foundatión Albeniz of Madrid.
In 2015 the quartet was awarded the Piero Farulli Prize, given to the best emerging chamber music group in the current year, as part of the XXXIV Franco Abbiati Award, the most prestigious Italian music critics award.
It received from La Fenice Theatre, Venice, the Arthur Rubinstein – Una Vita nella Musica 2015 Award …for establishing itself in a mere few years as one of the most promising Italian chamber music groups and for displaying, early in its career, its maturity of approach to the great string quartet literature; for seeking a reasoned and lasting interpretation of the masterpieces of the Classical-Romantic period and of the twentieth century, together with a determined and ongoing exploration of the contemporary music language.
The versatility and the interpretative originality of the ensemble appear in the quartet’s whole repertoire and the attention to the new compositional languages drive it to experiment with innovative concert formats like performing by heart in complete darkness.
It has worked with several contemporary composers and took part in many cross-cutting projects with renowned theatre and dance companies.
It collaborated with renowned artists like Tommaso Lonquich, Andrea Lucchesini, Alain Meunier, Giovanni Scaglione, Sonig Tchakerian, Bruno Canino, Boris Petrushansky.
Quartetto Noûs has performed for important Italian concert seasons such as Società del Quartetto in Milan, Unione Musicale in Turin, Amici della Musica in Florence, Bologna Festival and Musica Insieme in Bologna, Società del Quartetto in Bergamo, Società Veneziana dei Concerti, Associazione Chamber Music in Trieste, Associazione Musicale Lucchese, Associazione Scarlatti in Naples, I Concerti del Quirinale in Rome, Stradivari Festival in Cremona, Ravenna Festival and Settimane Musicali in Stresa.
The quartet is regularly invited to perform in Germany, Switzerland, England, France, Spain, Canada, United States, South Korea and China.
Its performances have been broadcasted on several radio stations such as Venice Classic Radio, Radio Clásica, RSI and Radio 3.
In 2013 and 2017 it was quartet in residence at Festival Ticino Musica in Lugano.
Quartetto Noûs has recorded its albums with important music labels like Brilliant Classics, Tactus, DaVinci Edition and Warner Classics.
In 2021 the quartet will start a project that consists in recording all the Shostakovic’ string quartets with the label Brilliant Classics.
REPERTOIRE
REPERTOIRE
Thomas Adès
“Arcadiana”
Claudio Ambrosini
“Ma misi me per l’alto mare aperto” (2015)
Béla Bartók
String Quartet n° 3 Sz. 85
String Quartet n° 5 Sz. 102
Arnold Bax
Harp Quintet
Antonio Bazzini
String Quartet in C minor op. 80 n° 5
Ludwig van Beethoven
String Quartet in G major op. 18 n° 2
String Quartet in D major op. 18 n° 3
String Quartet in C minor op. 18 n° 4
String Quartet B flat major op. 18 n° 6
String Quartet in F major op. 59 n° 1
String Quartet in E minor op. 59 n° 2
String Quartet in C major op. 59 n° 3
String Quartet in E flat major op.127
String Quartet in B flat major op.130
String Quartet in A minor op. 132
String Quartet in B flat major op. 133
Alban Berg
Lyric Suite
Luciano Berio
“Glosse” for String Quartet (1997)
Giovanni Bietti
“Giochi” For String Quartet (2023)
Luigi Boccherini
String Quartet in C major op. 2 n° 6
String Quartet in D major op. 8 n° 1
String Quartet in G major op. 44 n° 4 “La Tiranna”
String Quartet in F major op.64 n.1
Guitar Quintet in D minor G. 445 n° 1
Guitar Quintet in C major G. 453 n° 9
Johannes Brahms
String Quartet in C minor op. 51 n° 1
Piano Quintet in F minor op. 34
String Quintet in G major op. 111
Clarinet Quintet in B minor op. 115
Gavin Bryars
“A man in a room, gambling”
Mario Castelnuovo – Tedesco
Guitar Quintet op. 143
Ernest Chausson
Concert for Violin, Piano and String Quartet in D major op. 21
Fryderyk Chopin
Piano Concerto n.2 in F minor op.21 (transcription for piano and string quartet)
Cristina Colaneri
“Arcifollia”
Silvia Colasanti
“Di tumulti e d’ombre – Studio per Faust” (2010)
“Tre notti” (2016)
“Due destini” (2017)
“Aria” (2018)
Antonio Accursio Cortese
“Altaria” (2019)
Franz Danzi
Bassoon Quintet in D minor op. 40 n° 2
Claude Debussy
String Quartet in G minor op. 10
Martin Derungs
“Memory” op. 103 (2006)
Bryce Dessner
Electric Guitar Quintet
François Devienne
Bassoon Quintet in F major op. 73 n° 2
Edoardo Dadone
“Trajes de Luces” (2018)
Henri Dutilleux
“Ainsi la Nuit” for String Quartet
Antonìn Dvorak
String Quartet in E flat major op. 51 n° 10
Piano Quintet in A major op. 81
César Franck
Piano Quintet in F minor op. 14
Gabriel Fauré
String Quartet in E minor op. 121
Daniele Gasparini
“Day and Night”
Peter Gast
String Quartet n.2 “Marriage Provençal”
Daniele Ghisi
“Come di Tempeste” (2014)
Osvaldo Golijov
“The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac The Blind” (1994)
Georg Friedrich Haas
String Quartet nº9 (2016)
Joseph Haydn
String Quartet in E-flat major op. 33 n° 2
String Quartet in G major op.33 n°5
String Quartet in D minor op. 42
String Quartet in E flat major op. 50 n° 3
String Quartet in D minor op. 76 n° 2
String Quartet in B flat major op. 76 n° 4
String Quartet in C major op. 76 n° 5
String Quartet in G major op. 77 n° 1
Paul Hindemith
String Quartet op. 22 n° 4
Clarinet Quintet op.30
Leoš Janáček
String Quartet n° 2 “Intimate Letters”
György Kurtág
Twelve Microludes op. 13
Bruno Letort
A.K.A.
L’Affaire Desombres – Brüssel
L’Affaire Desombres – Alaxis
Vertige horizontal
György Ligeti
String Quartet n° 1 “Métamorphoses nocturnes”
Giuseppe Martucci
Piano Quintet in C minor op.45
Felix Bartholdy Mendelssohn
String Quartet in A minor op. 13
String Quartet in F minor op. 80
Octet in E flat major op. 20
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
String Quartet in G major kv 80
String Quartet in G major kv 156
String Quartet in F major kv 158
String Quartet in E flat major kv 160
String Quartet in E flat major kv 171
String Quartet in G major kv 387
String Quartet in D minor kv 421
String Quartet in B flat major kv 458
String Quartet in C major kv 465
String Quartet in F major kv 590
Clarinet Quintet in A major kv 580
Luigi Nono
“Fragmente-Stille, an Diotima” (1980)
Alessandro Perini
“Grammar Jammer” (2014)
Gabriel Prokofiev
String Quartet n.1
String Quartet n.2
Webern Fünf Sätze – Remixed
Breaking Screens – String Sextet
Giacomo Puccini
“Crisantemi”
Marco Quagliarini
“Dal buio” (2016)
Maurice Ravel
String Quartet in Fa major
Ottorino Respighi
String Quartet in D minor P. 91
Gioacchino Rossini
Sonata a quattro in A major n° 2
Sonata a quattro in E flat major n° 5
Sonata a quattro in D major n° 6
Nicola Sani
“Other echoes” for String Quartet (2020)
Dmitrij Šostakovič
Elegy and Polka, for String Quartet
String Quartet in C major n°1 op.49
String Quartet in A major n°2 op.68
String Quartet in F major n° 3 op.73
String Quartet in D major n°4 op.83
String Quartet in B flat major n° 5 op.92
String Quartet in G major n°6 op.101
String Quartet in F sharp minor n° 7 op.108
String Quartet in C minor n° 8 op.110
String Quartet in E flat major n° 9 op.117
String Quartet in A flat major n°10 op.118
String Quartet in F minor n° 11 op.122
String Quartet in D flat major n°12 op.133
String Quintet in B-flat minor n°13 op.138
String Quartet in F sharp major n°14 op.142
String Quartet in E-flat minor n°15 op.144
Piano Quintet in G minor op. 57
Two Pieces for String Octet op.11
Franz Schubert
“Quartettsatz” in C minor D 703
String Quartet in A minor n° 13 D 804
String Quartet in D minor n° 14 D 810
String Quintet in C major D 956
Robert Schumann
String Quartet in A major op. 41 n° 3
Piano Quintet in E flat major op. 44
Igor Stravinskij
Trois pièces pour quatuor à cordes
Pëtr Il’ič Čaikovskij
String Quartet in E flat minor op. 30 n°3
‘Souvenir de Florence’ in D minor op.70
Giuseppe Verdi
String Quartet in E minor
Pietro Viviani
“Questa specie di amore…” (2015)
Anton Webern
“Langsamer Satz”
“Fünf Sätze” op. 5
“Sechs Bagatellen” op. 9
PROJECT
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PROJECT
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Performance Highlight
PRESS
…this recording by the Quartetto Noûs has an exceptionally good sound…the superb sound given to the Noûs really does make a difference. It is simultaneously richer and in closer focus.
(MusicWeb International - David McDade)
Decisive and unanimous, the Noûs had the measure of the piece, as well as energy and clear heads.
The renaissance of the string quartet in Italy: among the most important successful groups, we certainly point out the “Quartetto Noûs”.
(Archi Magazine)
Achievements
2015 Awarded the ‘Piero Farulli Prize’ , the most important prize of the Italian critics.
2015 Awarded the ‘Una Vita nella Musica’ prize, that has the aim to celebrate the most distinguished personalities of the international stage.
2021 The Quartet starts to record the complete Shostakovich’s String Quartets cycle for the Brilliant Classics label
