Fauré Quartett 2003

Fauré Quartett
Dirk Mommertz (piano), Erika Geldsetzer (violin), Sascha Frömbling (viola), Konstantin Heidrich (cello)

The Fauré Quartett won the Parkhouse Award in the 2003 competition, where they performed the first movement of Dvorák’s Piano Quartet Op. 87, the second movement of Brahms’ Piano Quartet Op. 26 and the fourth movement of Fauré’s Piano Quartet Op. 15

The year 1995 was the 150th anniversary of the birth of the French composer Gabriel Fauré and the year in which the Fauré Quartett came into being. Affection for Fauré’s two piano quartets (recorded on the ARS MUSICI label) prompted the ensemble to name itself after the composer. The four musicians met when they were studying at the Karlsruhe Conservatory of Music and they have remained together as an ensemble ever since. In 2004, the Fauré Quartett was appointed Quartet in Residence at the Conservatory.

Over the last two years the ensemble’s intensive work together has turned a promising young ensemble into an exceptional piano quartet. Their rapport with the piano quartet repertoire has led to the Fauré Quartett recording W.A. Mozart’s Piano Quartets for Deutsche Grammophon, released in March 2006 to mark the Mozart anniversary.

Today, the Fauré Quartett is a regular performer at major international venues in Europe and abroad, with concerts in London (Wigmore Hall), Berlin (Philharmonie), Amsterdam (Concertgebouw), Frankfurt (Alte Oper), Hamburg (Musikhalle), Stuttgart (Liederhalle), Paris and Brussels.

The quartet has performed in renowned music festivals, including the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Rheingau Festival, Schwetzinger Festspiele, Ludwigsburger Festspiele, Martha Argerich Festival in Buenos Aires, Festival de Radio France et Montpellier, Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Kissinger Sommer and Festival de l’Orangerie de Sceaux.

The Fauré Quartett is a regular visitor to France, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Finland and Britain. It has special links with South America and Mexico and in 2006 the quartet will undertake its fifth tour of the continent.

In its musical development the ensemble has profited from intensive collaboration with Wolfgang Jahn, Misha Katz, Mikhail Bezverkhny and Eduardo Hubert. Its four-year association with the Alban Berg Quartet in Cologne was an important period in its development.

The Fauré Quartett has made a number of CD recordings of works by Fauré, Dvorák, Suk and Brahms on the ARS MUSICI and BMG labels.

Links
website: www.faurequartett.de
agent: www.kdschmid.de/Kuenstler/Faure-Quartett.php
discography: shop.klassikakzente.de
Mozart CD: www.deutschegrammophon.com

Festival
The Fauré Quartett are artistic directors of the Rügen festival.