Gringolts Quartet

String Quartet

Contact

Kathrin Feldmann-Uhl
kf@karstenwitt.com
+49 30 214 594-241

Maï Handal
mh@karstenwitt.com
+49 30 214 594 -229

General Management

IN THE MAGAZINE

In the magazine

From 29 January to 2 February, the Mizmorim Chamber Music Festival in Basel will present around 30 artists and ensembles - including Ilya Gringolts, artistic advisor to the festival, and his Gringolts Quartet, as well as pianist Anton Gerzenberg.

NEW CDS

Passionate, intense, balanced, multi-faceted, intimate: the Brahms CD by the Gringolts Quartet, released in June, was chosen by BBC Music Magazine as Recording of the Month.

NEW CDS

The new CD by the Gringolts Quartet received outstanding reviews and was awarded a Diapason d'or.

more articles in the magazine

FRI 31.01.

12:15
Kunsthaus Baselland

18:30
Kunsthaus Baselland

THU 20.03.

20:30
Associazione Alessandro Scarlatti

Biography

Ilya Gringolts, violin
Anahit Kurtikyan, violin
Silvia Simionescu, viola
Claudius Herrmann, violoncello

A passionate, committed account that seems to employ 360 degrees of expressive technique. There’s a wealth of characterisation within this richly unified, bronze-dark ensemble. A deep-dug, chunky tone, often quite rugged, is offset by moments of intense sweetness, as well as great delicacy and refinement. Besides being beautifully balanced and transparent, some of the softest passages acquire an ‘innigkeit’ (introspection) that can make you hold your breath. BBC Music Magazine, Jessica Duchen, 9 July 2024 (about the CD with string quintets by Brahms)

A lively, intense dialogue between the eras - that is a fundamental concern of Ilya Gringolts, one of the outstanding violinists of his generation and primarius of the Gringolts Quartet. Founded in 2008, the string quartet stands for a luminous, unified and at the same time extremely differentiated ensemble sound: glowing, dense, warmly shining like bronze and gold, with maximum expressive effect, then again mercurially agile and dynamic, transparent and audible down to the smallest detail. The Gringolts Quartet's interpretations are characterised by great musical maturity and impressive technical superiority, which is never superficial but always at the service of the music.

The international ensemble - Ilya Gringolts has Russian roots, violinist Anahit Kurtikyan comes from Armenia, violist Silvia Simionescu from Romania and cellist Claudius Herrmann from Germany - is based in Zurich and has made a name for itself in major concert halls and at major international festivals. The four musicians were already friends through many chamber music encounters before the quartet was founded and have played together in various formations; Claudius Herrmann and Anahit Kurtikyan played together in the renowned Amati Quartet Zurich. In recent seasons, the quartet has performed at the Salzburg Festival, the Lucerne Festival, the Edinburgh Festival, the Verbier Festival and the Gstaad Menuhin Festival, among others; It also performs regularly in internationally renowned concert halls such as the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Wigmore Hall London, the Philharmonie Luxembourg, the Stockholm Konserthuset, the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, the St Peter's Philharmonie, L'Auditori Barcelona, the Sociedad Filarmónica de Bilbao, Lugano Musica and the Società di Concerti in Milan.

The quartet maintains musical partnerships with renowned artists such as Jörg Widmann, Andreas Ottensamer, Malin Hatelius, James Boyd, Christian Poltéra, Katia Skanavi and Alexander Lonquich. The musical encounter with the American pianist Leon Fleisher (1928 - 2022) has enriched the quartet in a lasting way. Just as important to the four musicians as the classical repertoire is the performance of contemporary music, including works by Heinz Holliger, Valentyn Silvestrov, György Kurtág, Marc-André Dalbavie, Jörg Widmann and Lotta Wennäkoski.

The quartet can also be heard regularly in quintet formations - currently with both Brahms and Mozart string quintets. The Brahms quintets with the sought-after Finnish violist Lilli Maijala have been released by BIS in June 2024 and already received rave reviews, while the Mozart quintets will be recorded with the renowned American violist Lilly Francis on period instruments and gut strings for the Outhere label. The quintet will also be touring Italy in this formation. Other highlights of this season include performances by the quartet at the Turku Music Festival, the Settimane Musicali di Ascona, the Mizmorim Chamber Music Festival in Basel and the Heidelberger Frühling.

The Gringolts Quartet first attracted attention with its exquisite CD recordings of works by Schumann and Brahms. The series of awards began in 2012 with the ECHO Klassik for the first recording of Walter Braunfels' quintets together with cellist David Geringas. The recording of the quintets by Glazunov and Taneyev with cellist Christian Poltéra received the Diapason d'Or in 2016. The CD with octets by Mendelssohn and Enescu, released jointly with Meta4 on BIS in 2017, was honoured with the German Record Critics' Quarterly Award.

The Gringolts Quartet is also known for its outstanding Schoenberg expertise: a recording of the String Quartets Nos. 2 and 4, praised by the press as a ‘reference recording’, was released by BIS in 2017. The second volume with Schoenberg's Quartets Nos. 1 and 3, released in 2022, was awarded a Diapason d'Or.

All members of the Gringolts Quartet play on rare Italian instruments: Ilya Gringolts plays a Stradivarius ‘ex-Prové’, Cremona 1719, Anahit Kurtikyan a Camillo Camilli violin, Mantua 1733, Silvia Simionescu a Jacobus Januarius viola, Cremona 1660 and Claudius Herrmann a Maggini cello, Brescia 1600. Incidentally, Prince Golitsyn, a great admirer of Beethoven, was once the first to play the composer's last commissioned string quartets on this instrument.

2024/25 season

This biography is to be reproduced without any changes, omissions or additions, unless expressly authorised by the artist management.

Download Bio EN

Programmes

Quartet recitals

I
Beethoven String Quartet in F major, Op. 18/1
György Kurtág 12 Microludes, Op. 13
Sándor Veress String Quartet No. 1
Dvořák String Quartet No. 5 in F minor, Op. 9

II
Haydn             String Quartet in G major, op. 76/1
Schönberg           String Quartet No. 4
Dvořák              String Quartet tbd

III
Haydn                         String Quartet in E major, Op.17/1
Silvestrov                   String Quartet No 1
Brahms                       String Quartet in A minor, Op. 51,2
or
Shostakovich            String Quartet No 10 in A flat major, Op. 116

QUARTET +

Brahms String Quintets with Lilli Maijala (Viola)

String Quintet No. 1 in F major, Op. 88
String Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op. 111

Mozart String Quintets on historic instruments with Lily Francis (Viola)

3 quintets in one concert*
6 quintets in two concerts in a row

* for example:

String Quintet C minor, KV 406
String Quintet E flat major, KV 614
------
String Quintet D major, KV 593

Programme with Sarah Wegener

Haydn: String Quartet No 1 E major, Op. 17
Heinz Holliger: Increschantüm for soprano and string quartet
Schubert: String Quartet No 15 in G major, D 887

(Programme suggestions for the 2024/25 season. Subject to alterations.
Further programmes on request)

References

"In this superb recording, the Gringolts Quartet and violist Lilli Maijala do the quintets proud, with a passionate, committed account that seems to employ 360 degrees of expressive technique. There’s a wealth of characterisation within this richly unified, bronze-dark ensemble. A deep-dug, chunky tone, often quite rugged, is offset by moments of intense sweetness, as well as great delicacy and refinement. Besides being beautifully balanced and transparent, some of the softest passages acquire an ‘innigkeit’ (introspection) that can make you hold your breath. (...) Most pleasing of all is that this multifaceted, technicolour playing brings out the best in Brahms by never chasing mere effect or turning to shouty exaggeration."

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE, Jessica Duchen, 9 July 2024 - on the CD with String Quintets by Brahms, BIS-2727

“Gringolts leads his quartet with impressive selflessness, deploying his ardent but tightly focused violin tone to set the outer boundaries of the ensemble sound ... The viola player Silvia Simionescu, in particular, sounded like a kindred spirit to Gringolts, with a burnt umber tone that resembled Jonas Kaufmann’s lower register. But the Gringolts Quartet’s rhythmic drive, its translucency and its cinematic shifts from one dynamic level to another were a collective achievement; and they felt instinctive ... a performance that lays bare the full, sublime vastness of Dvorak’s imagination.”

The Spectator, Richard Bratby, 4 September 2021 - on Dvoraks String Quartet No. 13, Op. 106

"The Gringolts Quartet play both works with absolute mastery, and it would be difficult to imagine more convincing performances. Lingering particularly in the memory is the middle section of the quasi-slow movement in the Quartet No. 1, with its radiant viola melody beautifully played by Silvia Simionescu. This is a really important release."

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE, Misha Donat, 24 Juin 2022 - on Schönberg's String Quartet No. 1 in D minor Op. 7 and String Quartet No. 3 Op. 30

“This collaboration between Ilya Gringolts’ Zurich-based quartet and Finland’s Meta4 gets things right. They’re alive to every mercurial mood shift, dropping to a whisper and shedding vibrato in the development’s shadier corners. [...] The playing is incendiary. [...] Trust me – buy a copy.”

THE ARTS DESK, Graham Rickson, 27 June 2020 - on the CD with octets by Mendelssohn and Enescu with Meta4, BIS-2447

"The technical virtuosity of the Gringolts pays huge dividends for they are able to play it so accurately and with such apparent ease that what the notes describe as the “laborious details” do not get in the way of an emotionally dramatic experience. (…) Very highly recommended."

MusicWeb International, Dave Billinge, 03 Juin 2022 - on Schönberg's String Quartet No.3 Op.30

“An outstanding coupling.”

THE STRAD, Julian Haylock, 26 March 2020 - on the CD with octets by Mendelssohn and Enescu with Meta4, BIS-2447

“In the slow second movement, the audience experienced the magical moment when the Ensemble layered the slow sequences on top of each other with calmness and abandonment. It was as if I was watching a clockmaker who carefully assembles a clock with tweezers and love. In the concert hall, there was transcendence and quietness while the musicians let the end of the movement slowly fall into silence, note by note.“

BACHTRACK, Stefan Pillhofer, 11 July 2020 - on the CD with octets by Mendelssohn and Enescu with Meta4, BIS-2447

“The Gringolts Quartet lent Haydn's work a very refined and yet powerful dynamic, with differentiations notable even in the extremes. The four musicians produced a very transparent sound. [...] In the extremely rapid final movement,the musicians set off highly virtuoso fireworks.”

BNN, Karl-Heinz Fischer, 28 January 2019

“There hasn’t been such a persuasive case for Schoenberg’s music for years, making this CD my new reference recording.”

KLASSIK-HEUTE, Martin Blaumeiser, 28 September 2017 - on the Schönberg CD

“Beautifully integrated sound; immaculate execution of impeccable, mature interpretations, charismatic on-stage and, above all: they are purely about the music. Striking a fine balance of profundity and humour for both Haydn and Brahms, they left their audience enraptured or tittering in all the right places. They convincingly adapted their sound to be classically vibrato-free for one then full-fat Romantic for the other.”

HERALD SCOTLAND, Svend McEwan-Brown, 12 August 2017