Minguet Quartett - Leyendecker: String Quartets Nos. 1-3 & Bass Clarinet Quintet (2019)

The Minguet Quartet, founded in 1988, is one of the most internationally sought-after string quartets today and gives guest performances in all the great concert halls of the world. The passionate and intelligent interpretations of the Minguet Quartet always ensure inspiring listening experiences – “for the joy in sound and expression with which the ensemble makes the works speak enlivens even the smallest detail”. (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung)

The namesake of the Quartet is Pablo Minguet, a Spanish philosopher of the 18th century who attempted, in his writings, to facilitate access to the fine arts for all sectors of the population – and this idea is a chief artistic concern of the Minguet Quartet particularly while touring for concerts around the whole world.

In 2019/20 season the Minguet Quartet will be guest at the Grafenegg Festival, Schwetzinger Mozartfest, International Stiftung Mozarteum Salzburg, Festival Ultraschall Berlin, Kissinger Sommer, Festspiele Herrenchiemsee, Meistersingerhalle Nürnberg and De Doelen Rotterdam. Furthermore a tour to the USA with concerts in Washington DC and Los Angeles is planned. 2019 has begun with a performance at the Kammermusikwoche Schloss Elmau, followed by concerts at Lincoln Center New York, SouthBank Centre London, Konzerthaus Vienna, the newly opened Philharmonie Skopje, Nymphenburger Sommer in Munich, Mozartfest Würzburg and the International Schubert-Fest Dortmund. 2018 the quartet performed at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Beethovenfest Bonn, Schwetzinger Festspiele, Badenweiler Musiktage, at EuroArt Prague and the Mosel Musikfestival, and was lecturer ensemble in residence at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln.
Previous seasons took the Minguet Quartet to the Berlin Philharmonie, Konzerthaus and Staatsoper, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, the Library of Congress Washington DC, The University of Hong Kong, Festival d'Automne Paris, BOZAR MUSIC Brüssel, Tongyeong International Music Festival Korea and to further concert halls and festivals within Europe, Japan, Central and South America, Canada and the USA.
Projects in 2020/21 include concerts at the Cologne Philharmonie, the Bavarian Akademie der Schönen Künste Munich, Conway Hall London, International Brucknerfest Linz, the Tutzinger Brahmstage, Meister & Kammerkonzerte Innsbruck and at L’Art pour l‘Art Lausanne.

The ensemble concentrates on the Classical-Romantic literature and modern music in equal measure, and has proven its commitment to compositions of the 21st century through numerous premieres. Encounters with important composers of our time inspire the four musicians to create ever new ideas in programming. The first complete recordings of the string quartets of Wolfgang Rihm, Peter Ruzicka and Jörg Widmann are amongst their most important projects. For the 70th Birthday of Manfred Trojahn a recording including the first performance of the composer’s second string quartet with clarinet and mezzosoprano and a length of one hour after poems by Georg Trakl will be released in automn 2019. Outstanding highlight of the last years was the performance of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Helicopter String Quartet as part of a conception by the conductor Kent Nagano.

Partners of Minguet Quartet include the sopranos Juliane Banse and Claron McFadden, mezzosoprano Tanja Ariane Baumgartner, baritone Dietrich Henschel, the clarinetists Matthias Schorn and Thorsten Johanns, pianists Michael Korstick and Matthias Kirschnereit, the violist Gérard Caussé and the cellists Jens Peter Maintz and Christoph Richter. As solo quartet the Minguet Quartet played with the Radio Symphony Orchestras DSO, of SR, hr and WDR and with Brucknerorchester Linz under the conductors Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Markus Stenz and Peter Ruzicka. Further solo performances with the Nürnberger Symphoniker and Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern are following.

With the complete CD recordings of the string quartet literature of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Josef Suk and Heinrich v. Herzogenberg (cpo), the ensemble proudly presents its great musical culture, opening up to the public the discovery of impressive music of the Romantic period. In the upcoming years the Minguet Quartet will record the complete work for chamber music by Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek, Heinrich Kaminski and Walter Braunfels, music by Alberto Evaristo Ginastera and the unique string quartet by Glenn Gould.