The Evangelists

The Evangelists are the world’s only played matched set of string quartet instruments by a major maker. They were acquired by the Swiss Global Artistic Foundation in April 2008 with a view to contributing to the artistic growth of emerging string quartets of the first rank.

Built in Paris, 1863, by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, The Evangelists (comprised of St John and St Mark violins, St Matthew viola and St Luke 'cello) were first loaned to the Paris-based Modigliani Quartet. The loan to Modigliani for a period of two years represented the Foundation's ongoing commitment to help young artists attain the highest levels of musical performance and professional advancement. For The Evangelists, who had for 35 years been sleeping silently in the chambers of luthier Étienne Vatelot, so began a period of "waking up". It is from this point that the Finzi Quartet were awarded the instruments having taken part in the competition held at Wigmore Hall in July 2010. Their period of two years with the instruments has now come to an end, but below are some of the Quartet's reactions to the instruments early on.

Sara Wolstenholme – St Jean

Becoming acquainted with St Jean over the last year has been an interesting and challenging journey and one that is ongoing. We all remarked initially on the sheer increase in volume compared to our previous instruments. In fact the brightness and brilliance of St Jean was such a shock that I spent a few months practicing with an ear plug in my left ear! Having experimented with a range of strings and in many combinations, I felt that St Jean became too strident with a higher tension string on, so in an attempt to coax more tonal variety out, I am currently trying lower tension gut strings on the D and G. This in combination with a newly built bridge from Beares has made St Jean less temperamental with more consistency in the resonance between strings. There is still much to discover, but I feel very grateful to have an opportunity to play a fantastic violin that is forcing me to explore, improve and refine so many aspects of my technique and musicianship.

Natalie Klouda – St Marc

The first thing that struck all of us when we played these instruments was the immediacy with which they spoke compared to our other instruments. Once we had the Evangelists to ourselves we took some time apart to find our own way with the instruments. St Marc is different to the others, he reminds me of a morphing entity. His natural tendency is to flit between personas, indeed when we have listened back to recordings he often sounds like the cello or viola, which is fairly unique for a violin! These colours allow for a creative palate but this changeable tone is in contrast to the other instruments in the quartet which are very much in their own sound world. With this in mind Sara and I went to Beares to experiment with the set up to see if we could find a better balance for the two violins, soften St Jean and brighten St Marc. We realised that to try and make Marc sound like the others in an immediate way just wouldn't work. He needed to be allowed to be as healthy as possible and encourage his depth, to hopefully allow the upper registers of the violin to also gradually wake up.

As with any instrument one has to search for different tonal qualities. The key here though is to keep on nurturing that particular quality so that it becomes a natural part if the instrument's voice. Having not been played for at least 35 years it is exciting to be reawakening St Marc, who knows what the next 35 years will bring?

Ruth Gibson – St Mattieu

The last year has been a challenging and interesting time with St Mattieu - the viola of The Evangelists. When we played them for the first time the immediate difference with my own was it's size. My own instrument is a reduced Italian viola from 1810, only an inch or so bigger than a violin. However, it was the incredibly different sound under my ear that threw me off balance. The power and quality of the instrument was immediate from the start but I was used to a more subtle depth and warmth of tone. The direct, even harsh sound of St Mattieu certainly intimidated me that first time…

The first day we were given the Evangelists I played both my own viola and St Mattieu to some friends to gauge a reaction (I was still bewildered as to what I was really projecting). I couldn't help being excited by the power and sharp soloistic qualities it had. I knew then it would be the softer passages and more subtle colours where the struggle would begin!

We were very lucky to have received the Evangelists in July when our quartet had scheduled a few weeks to ourselves. The timing was perfect as we could all explore and acquaint ourselves with our instruments without comparison and constraint. I soon realised, despite being made as a set for quartet, St Mattieu certainly was made in it's own right and would not have been made purely to blend with others.

Lydia Shelley – St Luc

Getting to know St Luc has been a fascinating time for me as a cellist and member of a string quartet. The cello I played was a beautiful old English cello with a gentle and mellow sound, so at first the immediacy of St Luc's bright and strong palette was a huge contrast to what I was used to playing. What was incredible was the evenness of tone across all the strings – I had never played a cello with such strong D and G strings!
Despite the obvious advantages of playing an instrument with such a powerful tone, I began to feel that St Luc's setup was not allowing the full spectrum of colours to emerge. The A string was bright but bordered on tight especially higher up in thumb position – where you expected the sound to bloom and open it would close in and tighten up the higher you climbed which was bewildering for such an obviously strong instrument. At the other end of the cello the C string was powerful but somehow not warm, and I began to find that I was having trouble creating a bed of sound for my colleagues in the Quartet to play on. The cello has to put its arms around the sound world of the Quartet and it seemed St Luc wanted to play on his own!

With this in mind and in consultation with the rest of the Quartet it seemed a good idea to try and take some of the tension off the bridge on the lower strings to free them up and allow the A string to sing – I tried a few metal and synthetic strings without much success and eventually bit the bullet and changed over to Pirastro Oliv's – covered gut strings. The difference this has made to the cello is incredible, and a whole new instrument has emerged. Without losing the strength which is so valuable in the instrument it now has a warmer, rounder tone and resonates more freely throughout all the registers. In addition although the strings still have equal strength they now have different textures which opens up a whole new set of tonal possibilities. The more I get to know it in its new guise the more excited I am by the possibilities of this cello. You can never go far enough in trying to find new sound worlds and colours, and I am lucky to have this time to experiment on such a fine instrument.