5.7. 20.30
Berlin Tokyo Quartet
Berlin-Tokyo Quartet
Gavriil
Popov (1904-1972):
String Quartet Op. 61 v c-minor "Quartet Symphony" (1951)
- Allegro
eroico e molto risoluto
- Presto
leggierissimo, volando
- Adagio
cantabile colla dolcezza poetico
- Allegro
giocoso
"The performance of the Quartet Berlin-Tokyo is
sincere, their enthusiasm and love for music leave a strong impression." Toshio
Hosokawa
The Quartet Berlin-Tokyo was given its name at the
suggestion of the
renowned Japanese composer Toshio Hosokawa in
the course of an invitation to the Takefu International Music Festival. But
there is more to the name than reference to these two metropolises; it is
rather about a path running between them – and this is precisely the issue the young artists are engaged with. It
is therefore not coincidental that they feel committed to the music of Béla Bartók and his
striving for a synthesis between East and West.
The group was founded in 2011 by students of the two conservatories in Berlin.
Only a few months later, they celebrated initial success at the International
Music Competition of the ARD in Munich 2012 when awarded the prize of the Jeunesses Musicales Germany, followed
by the first prize and an Audience Award at the Orlando
International String Quartet Competition in 2014.
Other
prizes that the Quartet obtained include the second-and-audience prize at the International „Salieri Zinetti" Competition in Verona, second prize of the Young Concert Artists Audition New York, third prize at the
„Franz
Schubert" competition in Graz, second prize and
the
„Best interpretation of Carl Nielsen" prize at the „Carl Nielsen International
Chamber Music Competition" in
Copenhagen,
third prize at the „International Joseph Joachim Chamber Music Competition" and the
special prize
„Prix Irène Steels-Wilsing"at the 8th „Quatuors à Bordeaux" string
quartet competition in France.
The Quartet Berlin-Tokyo has also been supported
by several scholarships, including scholarships from the
Matsuo Academic Foundation Tokyo and Ottilie Selbach Redslob Foundation, Germany.
In October 2014, the ensemble was awarded a
scholarship by the Irene Steels-Wilsing Foundation and in 2015 they became „HSBC Laureates" of the „Aix en Provence" Festival, France.
The ensemble has performed at numerous national and
international concert venues, including the Hamburg Laeiszhalle, the Berlin
Philharmonic, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. In addition, the four young
musicians are
regularly invited to prestigious festivals such as the „Aix en Provence" Festival, Oslo Chamber Music Festival, the Takefu International
Music Festival, Heidelberger Frühling and
the Davos Festival in Switzerland, where they also performed the
5-and-a-half-hour long string quartet by Morton Feldman.
During the years 2020 and 2021 they have honored Beethoven by performing his
complete string quartets at two concert cycles.
They have received musical inspiration and guidance from Oliver Wille, David
Alberman, András Keller, Gerhard Schulz, Hartmut Rohde, Johannes Meissl, Jean-Guihen
Queyras, Heime Müller, Eberhard Feltz, the Artemis Quartet and the Arditti Quartet.
Since
2014 the Quartet has held a residency position at the new Fukinoto Concert hall of Rokkatei
in Sapporo, Japan. During this
residency they already produced
recordings of all quartets by Béla Bartók and complete op.76 by Joseph Haydn. In 2021
they have started their own recording label „QBT Collection" with which they
presented a world premiere recording of Gavriil Popov‘s „Quartet-Symphony". The CD has already earned high praise by critics worldwide.