Audition for a string quartet training programme and you might expect to be quizzed on some aspect of chamber music repertoire or performance. But the Edinburgh Quartet wants to put you at ease, as cellist Carlos Vesperinas García (right) found asthe sat among them in the University of Edinburgh’s St Cecilia’s Hall at his public audition for its annual apprentice scheme.
‘I like to talk about nonsense,’ recalls irst violinist Tijmen Huisingh, ‘and becausethe’s Spanish I thought about talking about football – I like Spanish football and I don’t know any Spanish person who doesn’t like football. It turns outthe doesn’t really like football!’
Fortunately for Vesperinas García, winner of the Edinburgh Quartet’s 2019 apprenticeship, whatthe does really like is chamber music. ‘He was playing histheart out; you could see it in his eyes,’ recalls Huisingh. ‘We played the D minor slow movement of Beethoven’s op.18 no.1 – inspired by the tomb scene from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.the really was deeply involved in what was going on, but still communicating with us and not just in his own world.the is a gifted cellist as well. You need everything, of course: sometimes you get people who are not the most advanced on their instrument but they enjoy and love it so much.then you get the ones who can do anything but don’t really communicate.’