Armida Quartett

Winning the ARD International Competition in 2012 (also sweeping all other prizes including the audience prize) propelled the Armida Quartet on to the international concert platform. After concerts and radio recordings as BBC New Generation Artists (2014-16) and subsequently as ECHO Rising Stars (2016/17), the musicians have established themselves as regular guests in the best-known chamber music halls in Europe, Asia, and the USA. In addition to regular appearances at European festivals such as the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the Rheingau Musik Festival, the quartet has enjoyed great success at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Berlin Philharmonie, and London's Wigmore Hall, among others. Highlights of the 2023/24 season include concerts in the Laeisz Hall in Hamburg, the Auditorio Madrid, Wigmore Hall in London, the Schwetzingen SWR Festival, the Bach Festival Leipzig, and the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival.

Acclaimed for their musical unity, which is evident in their fine-tuned sound and timing as well as their shared breaths, the musicians also emphasise their commitment to quartet playing with their choice of ensemble name: Armida refers to an opera by the composer Joseph Haydn, who is considered the "father of the string quartet". They studied with former members of the Artemis Quartet and with Rainer Schmidt (Hagen Quartet); they owe further important impulses to Reinhard Goebel, Alfred Brendel, Marek Janowski, and Tabea Zimmermann.

The Armida Quartet places a special focus on the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The third album of the complete recordings of his string quartets for CAvi Records was described as ground-breaking for Mozart interpretation in the 21st century (Klassik Heute). Fono Forum recently praised the fine nuances in sound, dynamics and articulation, saying the recording (Vol IV) set new standards (March 2022). The ensemble pursues its passion for Mozart, among other things, in its own concert series "Mozart Exploded," in which each of the composer's string quartets are combined with masterpieces of contemporary music and occasionally presented in experimental concert formats in Berlin. The series has already been enthusiastically received in New York as well. In addition, the young musicians have cooperated with G. Henle Verlag, for whom they act as musical advisors for the new Urtext edition of the Mozart quartets, including their own fingerings and bowings made available for the associated Henle Library App. In doing so, the quartet is not only at the forefront of the latest technological developments, but also advocates for closer collaboration between performing artists and musicologists.

Whether in its curatorial functions or on stage, collaboration with other artists is a priority for the Armida Quartet. They have a special relationship with the Serbian composer Marko Nikodijević, whose first and second String Quartets they premiered. In the meantime, however, musicians such as Thomas Hampson, Martin Fröst, Tabea Zimmermann, Jörg Widmann, Julian Steckel, Sabine Meyer, and Daniel Müller-Schott have also become regular partners. In addition, the ensemble gives master classes in Germany as well as abroad and is committed to social and educational institutions, including initiatives such as Rhapsody in School and Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now. Most recently, the Armida Quartet has become the first chamber music ensemble to be an ambassador for the Orchestras of Change Germany association, which was founded in 2020 as a climate and nature conservation initiative by members of numerous professional orchestras.

Along with the complete recordings of Mozart’s string quartets, the quartet's discography also includes their debut CD with works by Béla Bartók, György Ligeti, and György Kurtág (CAvi), released in 2013, which was included in the German Record Prize's Best List. A recording with works by Beethoven and Shostakovich was also released by CAvi in 2016, followed in 2017 by Fuga Magna with works by Scarlatti, Bach, Goldberg, Mozart, and Beethoven.Together with Martin Klett, the ensemble recently added another album on CAvi with piano quintets by César Franck and Frank Martin. Also, the quartet has participated in various compilations of contemporary works by Samy Moussa, Ursula Mamlok, Birke J. Bertelsmeier, and Milica Djordjević, among others.

2023/24 season

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Programmes

Berlin, Berlin
P. Vachon: String Quartet, Op. 11
P. Hindemith: String Quartet No. 4, Op. 22
U. Mamlok: String Quartet No. 1
F. Hensel: String Quartet in E flat major

Shostakovich
B. Britten: Three Divertimenti for string quartet
D. Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 14 F-sharp major, Op. 142
I. Stravinsky: Three Pieces for String Quartet
D. Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 9 in E-flat major, Op. 117

1824
F. Schubert: String Quartet No. 14 in D Minor D 810 „Death and the Maiden“
L. v. Beethoven: String Quartet No. Nr. 12 E flat Major, Op. 127

An die ferne Geliebte
with Benjamin Appl, baritone
L. v. Beethoven: An die Ferne Geliebte (arr. for string quartet)
R. Schumann: Quartet No. 3 in A Major
R. Schumann: Dichterliebe, Op. 48 (arr. for string quartet)

Winterreise
with Benjamin Appl, baritone
F. Schubert: Winterreise (arr. for string quartet), combined with
G. Kurtág: 12 Microludes, Op.13

Mary Stuart
with Lotte Betts-Dean, mezzo soprano
R. Schumann: Three Poems of Queen Mary Stuart, Op.135 (arranged by Brett Dean)
L. Janacek: String Quartet No. 2 Intimate Letters
W. Byrd: Consort Music (arranged / adapted where necessary)
Brett Dean: Madame ma bonne soeur (french text of Mary Stuart 1542 - 1587)
for string quartet and mezzo (UK/German premieres Autumn 2021)

References

"For the performances, I have nothing but praise, especially over the range of dynamics that truly extends from ppp to fff, taking us from delicate lyricism to overwhelming majesty. The balance between the musicians is good throughout, and the virtuosity under perfect control."

BBC Music Magazine, Roger Nichols - on the CD "Franck & Martin Piano Quintets", July 2023

“Armida Quartet is at the top of its game, and has retained a freshness of approach that befits the youthful Mozart. With crisp articulation and a sophisticated use of vibrato, the players come close to an ideal synthesis of period practice and modern instrumental set-up. Thanks to the Armida’s thoughtful phrasing and transparent playing, the early quartets come across as more than merely promising. Their far from insignificant inner parts are discreetly brought out, and each movement’s individual atmosphere is unerringly caught.”

The Strad, Carlos María Solare, May 2022

“Once again, the Armida are fine guides to the less familiar early works. … The Armida respond to the many moods to be found within (this music), whether it be robust playfulness (K157’s first movement), beauty (K159’s expansive opening Andante), pulsating drive (the same work’s G minor Allegro) or impishness (K160’s closing Presto). The recorded sound is generous and enveloping, the attack unanimous and the tone full-bodied, with judicious and sparing vibrato adding colour. … The Armida are road-testing the new Urtext edition of these works, and accordingly they are painstakingly faithful to each inflection and marking. This might in other hands lead to playing that is clinical and fussy, but the confidence and accuracy they bring to their performances make this another enticing instalment in their continuing quartet cycle.”

Gramophone, David, Threasher, March 202

“Armida’s sparkling corporate intonation and textural litheness prove especially beguiling. They also judge immaculately the fine line that exists between over-inflating Mozart’s early music and making it sound lightweight. This is partly a question of precision balancing between the various lines, so that it feels as though the music is virtually inventing itself as it goes along. … Yet it is the Olympian musical resonances of the Dissonance Quartet K465 that set the seal on this deeply immersive set of performances. Here the Armida’s linear democratising [...] pays special dividends, as the ear is gently guided by the music’s shifting sonorities. There was a time when listening to Mozart‘s quartets it was difficult to avoid a sense of Dresden china clinking gently in the background – not any longer!”

BBC Music Magazine, March 2022

"With fine nuances in sound, dynamics, and articulation, the ensemble enlivens the music and its colors. ... The members of the Armida Quartet play all of this with that mixture of care and freshness that is only possible through intensive study of the works. One senses that the Mozart style has become second nature to them ... with the contrast of gently swaying melancholy in the Andante and an irresistible drive in the concluding Presto of K. 157, the recording goes a step beyond the energy level of the great Hagen recording from the 1980s and in turn sets new standards."

Fono Forum, Marcus Stäbler, March 2022 - on the CD "Mozart String Quartets" Vol. 4

"The latest instalment in the Armida’s ongoing Mozart quartet series is a triumph, both musically and technically. Encapsulating the best of all worlds, the Armida play with the exquisite nuancing of the finest oldschool outfits, yet with a take-nothing-for-granted interpretative inquisitiveness that takes historically informed practice to a whole new level."

BBC Classical Music Magazine, Julian Haylock, March 2021 - on the CD "Mozart String Quartets" Vol. 3

"A musically enchanting technically exemplary interpretation of six Mozart quartets from different creative periods. Exactly how Mozart should sound in the 21st Century!"

klassik-heute, Thomas Baack, Januar 2021 - on the CD "Mozart String Quartets" Vol. 3

"Never before has the subtlety of Mozart’s tonal language struck me in this way; never before have I had such a colourful and surprisingly nuanced encounter with Mozart’s Quartettsatz. Everything is interpreted by this quartet so freshly and with such a natural effortlessness in this nimble, pithy, focussed rendition which thrills throughout that it almost seems as though Johanna Staemmler and Martin Funda (Violins), Teresa Schwamm (Viola) and Peter Philipp Staemmler (Violoncello) were weaned on Mozart.
Mozart interpretation and quartet playing at its finest hour."

klassik-heute, Christof Jetzschke, November 2019 - on the CD "Mozart String Quartets" Vol. 2

"Throughout the programme, the Armida performed with the excellent reputation that precedes them with an interpretation close to perfection and with a contrasted reading from start to finish - their pianissimi takes ones breath away."

Diario ABC, Pep Gorgori, November 2019

And what a climactic performance this Beethoven is; hardly tamed in its rawness, its barely tonal confusion of voices carrying a slender, Classical beauty of thought which has the effect of linking it right back to everything that has gone before. It´s wonderful stuff. Truly one to both savour and admire.“

Gramophone, Charlotte Gardner, October 2018 - on the CD "Fuga Magna"