Brentano String Quartet

Since its inception in 1992, the Brentano String Quartet has been singled out for its technical brilliance, musical insight and stylistic elegance. The Quartet will appear for the first time in Cyprus, as part of its European tour, for a concert at The Shoe Factory on 11 March 2013, which will include works by Beethoven and Bartók.

BRENTANO STRING QUARTET
Mark Steinberg – violin
Serena Canin – violin
Misha Amory – viola
Nina Maria Lee – violoncello

Since its inception in 1992, the Brentano String Quartet has been singled out for its technical brilliance, musical insight and stylistic elegance. Within a year’s time, the Brentano String Quartet claimed the distinction of being named to three major awards, winning the first Cleveland Quartet Award, the 1995 Naumburg Chamber Music Award and the 10th Annual Martin E. Segal Award.

For its first appearance in Great Britain at the Wigmore Hall, the Brentano was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award for the most outstanding debut in 1997. The Quartet became the first quartet-in-residence at Princeton University in 1999, and served as quartet-in-residence at New York University from 1995. In the same year, they were chosen by The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center to participate in the inaugural season of Chamber Music Society Two - a program designed for outstanding emerging artists and chamber musicians.

The Quartet performs extensively, both in north America where all its members reside, as well as on stages in Europe, Japan and Australia (England, Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, Netherlands, Greece) and international festivals like, Edinburgh, Bath, De Divonne, Kuhmo, Mozartwoche in Salzburg and many others. Enjoying an especially close relationship with pianist Mitsuko Uchida they regularly appear with her in the United States, Europe and Japan. Other prestigious artists they have worked with include the soprano Jessye Norman and pianist Richard Goode.

In past seasons, the Quartet appeared to great acclaim, among others, at the Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Barbican Center London, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Konzerthaus in Vienna and Berlin, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Sydney Opera House as well as in Cologne, Hamburg, Basel, Geneva, Madrid and in Copenhagen with Barbara Sukowa and Mitsuko Uchida. They also played with great virtuosity at Kissinger Sommer, Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele, Festival de Fayence, Aspen Festival and Salt Bay Chamber Festival.

Their eclectism and desire to go beyond the boundaries of the standard string quartet repertoire have led the Quartet to perform both Renaissance and early music pieces with transcriptions of, for example, Gesualdo and Monteverdi’s Madrigals, Fantasias of Purcell and secular works by Josquin des Prés. In the contemporary field, the Brentanos have regularly collaborated with composers such as Elliot Carter and György Kurtág, and performed works that were commissioned by Milton Babbitt, Chou Wen-Chung, Charles Wuorinen, Bruce Adolphe, Steven Mackey and Jonathan Dawe. To commemorate their 10th anniversary, the Quartet commissioned ten composers who wrote a piece inspired by and to be interwoven with excerpts of Bach’s Art of Fugue.

The Quartet has also worked with the celebrated poet and winner of the Pulitzer Prize Mark Strand, commissioning poetry from him to accompany works of Haydn and Webern. This programme was presented at the Mozartwoche in Salzburg for the first time in Europe in the beginning of 2005. For their project called “Fragments” the musicians combine incomplete works by composers such as Mozart, Schubert, Bach and Shostakovich with contemporary compositions among others by Sofia Gubaidulina and Bruce Adolphe.

The Brentano Quartet has released their first CD featuring Mozart’s Quartet K.464 and Quintet K.593 recorded with viola player Hsin-Yun Huang, for the French label AEON, with whom they pursued their collaboration with the recording of the late Beethoven string quartets (November 2011). Prior to this, the quartet had released a CD with Haydn’s Op.71 as well as a recording of Steven Mackey’s music, the latter for Albany records.

The Brentano String Quartet played in the movie A late Quartet (featuring Philip Seymour Hoffmann and Christopher Walken) which was premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The Quartet is named after Antonie Brentano, whom many scholars consider to be Beethoven’s “Immortal Beloved”, the intended recipient of his famous love confession.

PROGRAMME:
BEETHOVEN: String Quartet No.2 in G major, Op.18, No.2
BARTOK: String Quartet No.4 in C major
BEETHOVEN: String Quartet No.16 in F major, Op.135

Tickets:
€20 Adults / €15 Members of the Foundation, Concessions
Box Office: Tel. 7000-9304 (daily 9.30-11.30am) / www.pharostickets.org