Zehetmair Quartet
Introduction
Thomas Zehetmair, violin
Kuba Jakowicz, violin
Ruth Killius, viola
Ursula Smith, violoncello
The Zehetmair Quartet is one of the most highly regarded string quartets in Europe. Embarking on their first tour together in 1998, the quartet have astounded audiences with their technical brilliance ever since. They are regular performers at famous international summer festivals such as Edinburgh Festival, Helsinki Festival and the Schleswig Holstein Musik Festival. Following their debut at Salzburg Festival in 2010, the quartet have been re-invited twice.
The quartet have made several celebrated recordings and their recording of Schumann’s String Quartets was given the prestigious Gramophone Award ‘Record of the Year’. Other recordings of Bartok, Hartmann and Hindemith have been received with great critical acclaim and awarded with the Diapason d’Or.
Biography
Thomas Zehetmair, violin
Kuba Jakowicz, violin
Ruth Killius, viola
Ursula Smith, cello
The Zehetmair Quartet is one of the most highly regarded string quartets in Europe. Embarking on their first tour together in 1998, the quartet have astounded audiences with their technical brilliance ever since. They are regular performers at famous international summer festivals such as Edinburgh Festival, Helsinki Festival and the Schleswig Holstein Musik Festival. Following their debut at Salzburg Festival in 2010, the quartet have been re-invited twice. In the 2011/12 season, The Zehetmair Quartet perform string quartets by Hindemith and Schubert in Stockholm, and at Wigmore Hall London.
Highlights of last season include the Salzburg Festival with Beethoven and Ives String Quartets, Aldeburgh Festival and performances in Brügge, Luxemburg, and London. In 2009/10 the quartet made two extended concert tours with performances in several German cities as well as at numerous outstanding chamber music series of Europe including Brussels, Amsterdam, London, Paris, and Lisbon. They also performed at the Hong Kong Arts Festival, had a residency at the Festival Printemps des Arts in Monte Carlo and gave two performances in New York to commemorate Elliott Carter's 100th birthday.
Previous highlights among their outstanding artistic performances include a cycle performing all of Robert Schumann's string quartets at Wigmore Hall, London throughout the 2007/08 season. During the same period the quartet premiered the String Quartet No 2 by Heinz Holliger - a work commissioned for the Zehetmair Quartet, as well as undertaking an extensive concert tour throughout the US.
The Zehetmair Quartet record exclusively for ECM Records. They have recorded Bartók's Fourth String Quartet & Hartmann’s First Quartet, which won the Diapason d’Or for Best International Production of the Year. Their recording of Schumann’s First and Third String Quartets won them the prestigious Gramophone Award for Record of the Year in 2003 and also a Klara Prize. Their latest CD of Hindemith's Quartet No 4 Bartok's Quartet No 5 was honoured by the press as a reference recording and was awarded with the Diapason d'Or of the Year. A new recording dedicated to works by Holliger and Beethoven will be released soon.
Press Reviews
"Especially impressive here [Mozart G major Quartet] was the Zehetmair’s disembodied pianissimo. The suave Tempo di Menuetto finale was lovely, and held some interesting textural risks...The sheer intelligence of the Zehetmair Quartet, from their programming to the music’s realisation, is invigorating."
Seen and Heard, 19 January 2012
"The real surprise is Hindemith’s much less familiar Fourth Quartet…Zehetmair and his colleagues show that it deserves a place among the finest of 20th-century works... the Zehetmair Quartet really have set a new benchmark"
The Guardian April 2007
"The enormous dynamic range the Zehetmairs create - from shimmering, delicate pianissimos to towering climaxes - made for a visceral experience. They revealed the astonishing textural imagination of this music, the heightened pizzicatos and bowing techniques that made the players sound like a chorus of buzzing nocturnal insects, and the unbounded rhythmic energy that Bartok conjures from the simplest of musical building blocks. The piece creates a sort of hybrid folk music, and in the Zehetmairs' performance, it was as if this rich, complex idiom was being improvised right in front of you. Not content with the challenges of Bartok and Mozart, an encore of a movement from a quartet by Hindemith was yet another demonstration of the unique alchemy between this group of players"
The Guardian, July 2006
"This wonderful ensemble stole the hearts of the audience with a display of musical expertise and compelling empathy which has earned Zehetmair a name as one of the world’s most exceptional string quartets…Mozart’s quartet was played with youthful zest and joy in the opening allegro, wistful delicacy in the adagio and lovely reciprocal phrasing in the scherzo. Bela Bartok’s String Quartet was given an exciting opening with a pulsating, rhythmic allegro, while the poetic adagio was truly poignant"
The Reading Chronicle, March 2006
Contact
UK and the Netherlands
General Management: Astrid Schoerke Kunstlersekretariat
