Classical Music Daily
May 17, 2025
by Paul Bodine
Canada’s preeminent touring group?
Breaking with convention, the New Orford's violins switch seats depending on the programmed piece. Wan was first violin for Mozart; Crow took the lead seat for the Wijeratne and Beethoven. ('We never switch once we've settled on a piece', Crow clarified in the pre-concert.) The minor-mode instability displayed in Mozart K 421 is given full, free rein in Beethoven's structurally daring Op 131 of forty-three years later – his favorite of his sixteen quartets. The New Orford's virtuosic immersion in this protean landmark was riveting: Crow's agonized cantabile and Wei's aching lament in the first-movement Adagio, the antiphony between Manker's spiccato and Crow's lyrically ascending lines in the fourth movement, Manker's nicely dissonant snarls in the Presto and Crow and Wan's frantic slashing attack in the final Allegro.
Are the New Orfords now 'Canada's preeminent touring chamber group'? That may not do them full justice.
Calgary Herald
April 3, 2017
by Kenneth Delong
Fresh off Juno Award win, New Orford String Quartet demonstrate musical mastery
The Quartet itself was on something of a high, having just won the 2017 Juno Award for the Best Solo or Chamber Recording for their recent recording of two Brahms string quartets. And if this wasn’t enough, there was added musical fire power in the presence of two distinguished guests: violinist Cho-Liang Lin and pianist Orion Weiss.
The all-French program included only one work that could be called generally familiar—the String Quartet in G minor by Debussy. It also included a little played late Sonata for Violin and Piano by Maurice Ravel, as well as the Concerto for Piano, Violin, and String Quartet by Ernest Chausson, the last being principal reason for the assembling of this group of players.
Edmonton Journal
April 2, 2017
by Mark Morris
Juno-winning New Orford String Quartet at the forefront of chamber music
The Juno is just another feather in the cap of a string quartet that is at the forefront of chamber music playing in Canada. Their antecedents were perhaps the most famous Canadian string quartet of all time, the original Orford Quartet, which was active from 1965 to 1991. They recorded extensively, and performed around the world, including in the USSR, at the Montreal Olympics, and in Expo 67.
The New Orford was formed in 2009 by principal players from the Montreal and Toronto Symphony orchestras, where, rather astonishingly, they still play. Professional string quartets – let alone ones of this calibre – usually devote their entire time to their string quartets.
Palm Beach Daily News
September 4, 2016
by Marcio Bezerra
New Orford String Quartet impresses at Flagler Museum concert
The program opened with String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat Major, Op. 130.In six movements, rather than the usual four, the work’s transcendental nature can be heard from the opening measures down to the famous Grosse Fuge, which originally closed it. The New Orford tackled the work with confidence, impressing with a warm sound and perfect intonation. Violinist Jonathan Crow — who had made an impression as concert master of the Toronto Symphony a few days ago — delivered a breathtaking cavatina.