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Zehetmair Quartet
Thomas Zehetmair, 1st Violin
Kuba Jakowicz,
2nd Violin
Ruth Killius, Viola
Ursula Smith,
Cello
(Updated March 2009 – please discard any previous version) |
Founded in autumn 1994, the Zehetmair Quartet embarked upon its first concert
tour in spring 1998. Their success resulted in re-engagements by all the
promoters, followed by invitations to the United States and Japan to complement
the Quartet's annual European tours. Furthermore, the Zehetmair Quartet is a
welcome guest at famous international summer festivals such as the Edinburgh
Festival, the Helsinki Festival and the Schleswig Holstein Musik Festival.
Among the outstanding, artistic challenges of their 2007-8 Season was the
performance of the cycle of all of the string quartets by Robert Schumann at
Wigmore Hall in London, as well as the world premiere of the String Quartet no.
2 by Heinz Holliger, a work commissioned by Cologne Music GmbH for the Zehetmair
Quartet. That season also brough an extensive concert tour of the United States
in November 2007 (New York City, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Boston, etc.), where
the Zehetmair Quartet was enthusiastically acclaimed by audiences and the
critical press.
The Zehetmair Quartet records exclusively for the label ECM. Their first CD
featuring Bartók's 4th and Hartmann's 1st quartet (2000) as well as their
recording of Schumann's 1st and 3rd quartets (2003) have received numerous
prizes, including the Quarterly Prize by the Deutsche Schallplattenkritik, the
Gramophone Award (Record of the Year), the Diapason d'Or of the Year, the Dutch
Edison Classical Music Award 2004, the Belgian Caecilia Award and the Klara
Award for the best international production of the year.
Their latest CD,
Hindemith's 4th and Bartók's 5th string quartet was released in March 2007. This
recording also received the Diapason d'Or of the Year at a ceremony in Paris in
November 2007.
The 20080-9 Season began with invitations to sveeral internationally renowned
summer festivals, such as the Helsinki Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Music
Festival and Stresa Festival. Among upcoming performance highlights are two
performances of the Zehetmair Quartet in New York in April 2009 on the occasion
of the festivities for Elliott Carter's 100th birthday.
THE ZEHETMAIR QUARTET - CONCERT REVIEWS
Zehetmair Quartet at Wigmore Hall:
“Anyone who thinks of the Wigmore Hall as the stately old lady of classical
venues would have had quite a shock at these concerts. Across two successive
evenings we had no fewer than three world premieres and two London premieres.
Both concerts were fantastically rich in musical stimulus, and pitched at a
truly stellar height in terms of performance. But, in tone, they couldn't have
been more different.
After all that British reasonableness, the Zehetmair Quartet's concert came as a
startling contrast. Here everything was shrouded in romantic twilight and
mystery - even Schubert's early Quartet in E Flat, which on the surface seems a
charming and artlessly melodic piece. Here the quiet moments took on an uncanny
pallor, and the sudden outbursts were really explosive. The attempt to load the
existential angst of Schubert's late song cycles on this slender little piece
didn't entirely convince, but in Schumann's Third Quartet the approach worked
wonders. I've never heard the dusky mystery of this piece made so vividly real.
In between came the British premiere of Heinz Holliger's Second Quartet, where
the romantic allusiveness of the other pieces was pushed to extremes of glacial
stillness and expressionist fury. In the closing section, the spectral sound of
the quartet seemed to be shadowed by a ghostly aural presence. It took some time
for the mystery to be revealed; it was the quartet themselves, humming as they
played. It was a wonderfully suggestive moment, and for a moment it seemed as if
Holliger's world and Schumann's were not so far apart.”
Telegraph - March 20, 2008
“As if being the greatest oboist of the past half century wasn't enough, in the
past 10 years or so Heinz Holliger has been recognised as one of the most
significant European composers of his generation, too. One of the pieces that
cemented Holliger's reputation was the violin concerto he completed in 1995 for
Thomas Zehetmair, and now he has written a string quartet for the group
Zehetmair leads. They gave the first performance two weeks ago in Cologne, and
included the UK premiere in their Wigmore programme, framed by Schubert's E flat
Quartet D 87 and the third and last of Schumann's Op 41 set.
Dedicated to Elliott Carter, Holliger's String Quartet No 2 is a single
movement, lasting about 23 minutes but falling into six sections. The composer's
brief programme note talked about the burden of history weighing on anyone who
attempted to compose a string quartet as one of the reasons why the new work was
separated by 34 years from his First Quartet, which he describes as "much
criticised". That's unlikely to be the fate of this piece, though, which is
absorbing. Three sections are headed by quotations from Hölderlin and Celan.
They are not further explained, but the trajectory of the piece is
straightforward. Beginning with glassy, densely packed harmonics, it moves
seamlessly through a crepuscular slow section and a trembling perpetuum mobile
to arrive at the finale, labelled as a "12-part epilogue in three parts," in
which the members of the quartet sing four of the lines over the double-stops on
their instruments. It is a wonderfully unearthly effect, and a genuine
summation; the Zehetmairs manage it wonderfully, too, but then they are an
exceptional group.”
Guardian - March 18, 2008
5 stars
“The first thing you usually notice about the Zehetmair Quartet is that, perhaps
uniquely among such ensembles, they play without any music sheets in front of
them. Here, however, the crispness and energy of the first bars of music grabbed
the attention before that even registered. Haydn's Emperor Quartet, Op 76 No 3,
is an old warhorse, but sounded like a frisky thoroughbred, especially when,
after a rapt slow movement and a ballsy scherzo, first violinist Thomas
Zehetmair raced away in the finale so fast the others risked being left in a
cloud of dust. Not every ensemble would thrive on the Zehetmairs' approach, but
that painstaking learning of the notes clearly works for them. Bartók's Quartet
No 5 offered an intriguing glimpse as to why. In order to memorise the vast
score, the players must have to break down this seemingly tangled music so that
rhythms and musical shapes become their memory aids. And that means the music
immediately gains a sense of direction, a tautly balanced combination of
freshness and inevitability. The contrast between the otherworldly stillness of
the second movement and the climax of throbbing chords just before the end of
the work could hardly have been greater; yet these were the two extremes of a
larger, organic whole. The playing from Zehetmair himself was not always
beautiful, and the beginning of Schumann's Quartet in F, Op 41 No 2, verged on
the squeaky, as had moments in the Haydn. But the slow movement had an eloquent
simplicity from all four players, and their unerring focus made this rather
slight but sunny work hit home. The off-the-wall encore - a spiky, skittish
movement from Hindemith's Fourth Quartet - was a brave and entirely fitting
choice. Rough edges and all, this concert was a refresher course in how vital
and alive the string quartet as a genre can be.”
Broadcast on Radio 3 - March 12, 2008
“There is also a sense of daring, though not perhaps to the hair-raising degree
of the Zehetmair Quartet, whose ECM recording of No. 5 last year set new
standards in this repertoire.”
Telegraph - February 9, 2008
-
Top 10 Concerts of 2007:
"Germany's Zehetmair Quartet dispenses with music stands and plays with wide
dynamic and emotional range, presented by Pittsburgh Chamber Music Society."
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - January 1, 2008
-
-
The ZEHETMAIR QUARTET, Best Concerts of 2007: "The Zehetmair Quartet came
to town and dazzled a crowd in MIT's Killian Hall with the labyrinthine wonders
of Hindemith's Quartet No. 4."
Boston Globe - December 30, 2007
Pieces That Crackle (From Memory)
“Sure, every string quartet worth its salt has a distinctive sound, but few can
rival the distinctiveness and interpretive subtlety of the Zehetmair Quartet.
This rare orchid of an ensemble, led by the Austrian violinist Thomas Zehetmair,
gave a concert at MIT's Kresge Auditorium Friday night, and its performances of
music by Mozart, Hindemith, and Schumann crackled with a focused vigor and
freshness that made this easily one of the best chamber recitals of the year.
Even before the concert began, the stage on Friday night felt different: just
four chairs and no music stands. This quartet plays from memory, adding to its
mystique but in a way that does not feel gimmicky. The clean visual lines of the
four musicians seated without the usual tangle of paper and metal between them
seemed of a piece with this group's lean and sleek ensemble sound that has not
an ounce of fat on its bones. And the absence of page turning and the typical
diffusion of energy between movements made each piece feel like a seamless
glide, a fast trip on an open highway. In the early Mozart Quartet (K. 156) that
began the program, the Zehetmair's approach fused the intensity of gesture and
sculpted phrasing of the best early music groups with an ultra-modern spirit
completely devoid of all sentimentality. Individual lines were played with
soloistic brilliance but also with an extremely subtle and fine-grained
attention to sonic texture. In just one example, rather than the kind of
constant wide vibrato that many quartets use to help generate a warm and
resonant sound, these players deployed vibrato sparingly and at precisely
matching speeds that seemed perfectly calibrated to achieve the desired effect.
Many of the same qualities distinguished the group's closing account of
Schumann's Quartet Op. 41, No. 1, a remarkable wedding of intellectual rigor and
visceral physicality. Between the Mozart and Schumann came Hindemith's Quartet
No. 4, a seldom-performed piece that the ensemble has recently recorded on the
ECM label. This is music of twilight, from between the wars and between
aesthetic journeys. Hindemith had stepped back from his early volatile
expressionism but an unmistakable heat from the previous style lingers beneath
the ornate Bachian counterpoint. The Zehetmair Quartet gave the kind of urgent
and supremely considered reading that made you wonder where the piece has been
all these years.”
Boston Globe – November 19, 2007
Weird, Wonderful Quartet
“The Zehetmairs have maintained an interpretive reputation equal to that of the
top full-time quartets by keeping their repertoire small, select, and
interesting (they rehearse and tour with only one program a year), and by
recording bits of it for the ECM label. Sunday’s visit to UC Berkeley’s Hertz
Hall afforded those of us impressed by the Zehetmairs on record a tantalizing
chance to hear them live. It was a compulsively fascinating recital by a
singularly weird, wonderful, and sometimes worrisome ensemble. The Zehetmairs
are fantastically liberal with rubato. In fast, driven music, like the second
and fourth movements of the Schumann First Quartet that ended Sunday’s program,
they do keep to a rhythmic groove. But in anything less musically single-minded,
they seize every chance the music affords for rumination or point-making (and
occasionally some that the music honestly doesn’t). It’s natural to connect this
extraordinary mutability of tempo to the quartet’s playing from memory. Surely
that has something to do with it — not necessarily because the Zehetmairs know
their own (and one another’s) parts better than other good quartets do, but
because in the absence of printed parts the music in your head is somehow more
yours to mess around with. (Not having to peer over your own and other people’s
stands in order to communicate visually with your colleagues doesn’t hurt,
either.) Still, other chamber ensembles that play from memory — there are some —
don’t go to town with rhythmic inflection to this extent. I suspect that the
Zehetmairs’ decision to forgo printed music is a consequence of their
interpretive personality, rather than the cause of it. The Zehetmair Quartet
took a different tack. It lit into the most ferocious passages as furiously as
any. Elsewhere, though, there was surprising sweetness of tone, feathery
delicacy of articulation, and much play with string color. Things like the
thrumming pizzicato pulse underlying the central third movement or the eerie
ensemble trills at the end of the last achieved a whispered intensity. And
throughout was that ceaseless mutability of pulse, that constantly questing,
exploratory sense of rhythm. If most players of 1920s Hindemith (including the
composer himself) contrive to suggest the working of a fantastic machine, the
Zehetmairs’ Op. 22 was unquestionably, disquietingly alive. The entire
performance was a lesson in ground-level
belief
in a piece winning through performance. The Zehetmairs have found the trick of
making this particular quartet live. Their encore, characteristically offbeat
(not to say dead obscure), was the Scherzo of Anton Bruckner’s early (1862)
C-Minor String Quartet. I doubt anyone in the audience would have known it for
Bruckner if Zehetmair hadn’t announced it.”
SFCV.org - November 13, 2007
Headline: “String Quartet's Precision is Astonishing:
ZEHETMAIR THRILLS UC CONCERT CROWD”
“The German violinist Thomas Zehetmair brings an alarming solidity to every
bow-stroke - no, make that to every note he plays, no matter its volume. Or its
speed. Or its very texture or color. He performs with the probing eye of a
scientist, and yet there is nothing detached about his playing: His pinpoint
precision and intellectual keenness generate an astonishing emotional heat. Even
better, these qualities carry through to each member of his string ensemble, the
Zehetmair Quartet. It was an outrageously excellent performance. The quartet
seemed to expose hidden landscapes and emotional conditions as it traversed
works by Mozart, Hindemith and Schumann. Its level of concentration and
attunement was palpable; the attention of the audience was equally intense,
almost audible. The group plays from memory, aiming to internalize each piece to
such a degree that the players are free to respond to one another without any
obstruction. The strategy works: The program, paradoxically, felt strictly
choreographed - there is tremendous intention behind every note it plays - and
yet free to move about in unexpected ways. The concluding minuet of Mozart's
String Quartet in G major, K. 156, became almost unbelievably quiet as it drew
to its finish. (The Zehetmair, which studies the original autograph scores of
the pieces it performs, takes a "piano" instruction seriously.) It's beyond rare
to hear a group arrive at such a quiet place as this one (and baffling, from a
technical standpoint, to imagine how the players accomplish it). Or to bring
such a slow ache to the preceding Adagio, while so clearly exposing the folk
roots of the music. The program's apex was Hindemith's String Quartet No. 4, Op.
22. The Zehetmair brought a sense of shared pain to the fugue-like opening, its
textures like gentle abrasions, bruised yet oddly sweet, then increasingly
stark, verging on silence. That silence was disrupted by the hammered, unison
notes that launch the second movement - jagged and raw, with a thrumming pulse
and, from second violinist Kuba Jakowicz, a fiercely effective war dance. The
third movement, played with mutes, was a trip to a ghost world, while, in the
final two movements, the Zehetmair was showing us a land on fire: another
searing performance drawn from technical precision. After intermission, there
was Schumann's String Quartet in A minor, which showed off entirely different
aspects of the group: golden lyricism in the Andante, then shadows of late
Beethoven - frailty growing into prayerful strength. The music seemed symphonic:
worlds of emotion and color, always in flux. There was extraordinarily delicate
playing from cellist Ursula Smith, then a harrowing ride through the Scherzo,
the second movement. This was a thrilling concert. I'll be waiting for its
return, along with, I'm willing to bet, the rest of Sunday's cheering crowd.”
San Jose Mercury News – November 13, 2007
“It's hard to overestimate the greater intimacy of ensemble this creates, which
they heighten by actually having the first violin and violist (stage right)
facing more or less directly the second violin and cellist (stage left), instead
of half-turned toward the audience. The Zehetmair plays with consummate
refinement and musical understanding, steeped in the grand central European line
that we sometimes miss here. They strive for an almost improvisational manner.
In Schumann's A-minor Quartet (Op. 41, No. 1) I found the combination of
headlong energy and curious restraint rather refreshing, this in a piece where
histrionics too often stand in for sophisticated emotion. Hindemith's Fourth
Quartet was well gauged for this group's sensibilities, its mysterious fugatos
and buzzing intimacies honed to within an inch of their lives. This was a highly
studied performance of a very advanced piece.”
Kansas City Star - November 11, 2007
Headline: "Zehetmair Quartet's Precision Adds to Superb Concert"
"Music stands were missing but not missed at Carnegie Music Hall where the
Zehetmair Quartet gave an extraordinary concert. The four pieces performed were
all extremely well-rehearsed, producing bold stylistic personality for each
composer as well as the highest technical standards. The ensemble's dynamic
range extended from very soft to very strong, and with a variety of tone that
was similarly wide-ranging. Hindemith's Fourth Quartet received a thoroughly
persuasive performance. The performance of Robert Schumann's First Quartet
was the evening's highpoint. The detail and precision of the Zehetmair Quartet's
characterization of the music, from moment to moment, produced an intense
experience.” Pittsburgh Tribune - November
9, 2007
Headline: "Zehetmair Makes it a Memorable Night"
"The Zehetmair performances certainly were distinguished by an extraordinary
level of cohesion, precision and emotional unanimity. The music was exquisitely
played. When they took the passage just before the final coda at a whispered
level it was devastatingly effective. It was the finest performance of a
Schumann quartet I've ever heard."
Buffalo News - November 7, 2007
“Paul Hindemith is a composer whose reputation seems to have slipped through a
historical black hole. Condemned by the Nazis as an “atonal noisemaker,” he was
rejected by the avant garde for not being noisy or atonal enough. Nor does it
help that he was perceived as a purveyor of gebrauchsmusik, the drab,
politicised "utility music" promoted by the followers of Bertolt Brecht. Yet
it's hard to think of anything less utilitarian than a string quartet, and
Hindemith's works in this genre were as close a commitment as he made to the
doctrine of art for art's sake. All they lack is a passionate advocate, and
Thomas Zehetmair has recently risen to the challenge. Next month he conducts the
Northern Sinfonia in Hindemith's horn concerto; here, he brought his own group
to promote its CD release of the undeservedly neglected String Quartet No 4.
Hindemith's quartet is mood music, the mood being one of anxiety and barely
suppressed hysteria. Intensely contrapuntal, yet with jazzily degenerate
overtones, it is as if a Bach fugue had morphed into the music for a Berlin
cabaret. The centrepiece of the work is a quiet third movement, played with
heavy wooden mutes, in which the players thinned their tone to a conspiratorial
whisper. They were at their breathtaking best when playing quietly: Zehetmair
has commented that when Hindemith marked a passage pppp or ppppp, signifying
that the musicians should play as softly as possible, he expected to hear the
difference. The work concludes with a giddy rondo, founded on folksy rhythms,
which seems poised to launch into a final dance theme, thinks better of it, and
simply stops. Perhaps this is the problem people have with Hindemith - he always
seems terrified of having too much fun.”
Alfred Hickling, The Guardian - October 26, 2007
“Deprived by illness of
its cellist, the Zehetmair Quartet resourcefully confined its contribution to
Glasgow's International Classical Season to music for the three remaining
instruments. If this resulted in an inevitably fragmented programme, there were
profits. Bartok's pieces for two violins, particularly the witty pizzicato
miniature, were deftly played. Hindemith's Viola Sonata, Op 25, No 1 was
presented with warmth and conviction - and, in the flurries of its fourth
movement, such virtuosity - by Ruth Killius.
Ysaye's G major Sonata for solo violin, with someone of Zehetmair's
integrity and sang-froid to play it, was a bonus.
Dvorak's Terzetto was beautifully played.”
The Herald
- March 27, 2007
“There’s something
miraculous about every concert the Zehetmair Quartet play. They perform every
program entirely from memory, and the music seems to spring fully formed from
the collective consciousness of the four players. But as well as the vertiginous
thrill of wondering how it is possible for four people to memorize a program
like the line-up of Mozart, Bartok and Hindemith they played in Cheltenham, it
is the interaction between the musicians that is so startling, each player
acutely sensitive to the minute inflections of phrasing and tempo of the others.
The enormous dynamic range the Zehetmairs create - from shimmering, delicate
pianissimos to towering climaxes - made for a visceral experience.
They revealed the
astonishing textural imagination of Bartok’s music, the heightened pizzicatos
and bowing techniques that made the players sound like a chorus of buzzing
nocturnal insects, and the unbounded rhythmic energy that Bartok conjures from
the simplest of musical building blocks. The piece creates a sort of hybrid folk
music, and in the Zehetmairs' performance, it was as if this rich, complex idiom
was being improvised right in front of you. Not content with the challenges of
Bartok and Mozart, an encore of a movement from a quartet by Hindemith was yet
another demonstration of the unique alchemy between this group of players.”
The
Guardian - July 5, 2006
“This wonderful ensemble
stole the hearts of the audience with a display of musical expertise and
compelling empathy which have earned the Zehetmairs a name as one of the world’s
most exceptional string quartets. Mozart’s quartet was played with youthful zest
and joy in the opening allegro, wistful delicacy in the adagio and lovely
reciprocal phrasing in the scherzo. Bartok’s Quartet was given an exciting
opening with a pulsating, rhythmic allegro, while the poetic adagio was truly
poignant.”
Reading Chronicle - March 30, 2006
“There was never any question that when the Northern Sinfonia appointed Thomas Zehetmair as music director, it was receiving the full package: an inspirational conductor, a mercurial violin soloist and the leader of one of the most highly regarded string quartets in the world. ” The Guardian – September 21, 2005
“At most, the Zehetmair
Quartet tours once a year, and its previous performance (2003 at the 92nd
Street Y) lingers in the memory as one of the most cerebral yet visceral
concerts of that year or any other.
This time around featured the most subtle and delicate works ever penned for
strings – an evening of intense listening, sober musical values, and a
meditative, spiritual reverence for the scores on hand.”
Newsday – March 21, 2005
“At its Queen’s Hall concert on Wednesday, the
Zehetmair Quartet played a spellbinding performance of a Mozart masterpiece, and
followed with Schubert’s G major quartet in which the magical opening was
phrased with unforgettable poignancy and set the mood for all the rest.”
Sunday Telegraph - August 29, 2004
“In a superbly controlled and tingling performance, Thomas Zehetmair and his players defined every detail of the music, refining to the threshold of inaudibility every innuendo.” The Herald - August 26, 2004
“The Zehetmair Quartet plays without stands or music
- but the dramatic results prove it's a risk worth taking. Watching one of their
performances is the musical equivalent of seeing a high-wire trapeze artist
perform without a safety net. The string quartet performs its entire repertoire
from memory, with no recourse to anything apart from trust in each other, no
contingency plan apart from their forensic knowledge of the music. It's a
vertiginous feeling, even as a member of the audience, as you sit on the edge of
your seat wondering how it is possible for each player to sustain their
dependence on each other for a whole program. Performances are anything but
predictable. The concerts are like group improvisations: they inhabit the works
so completely that it seems as if the music is willed from a collective
subconscious, created right in front of the audience, instead of belonging to a
centuries-old repertoire of Haydn, Beethoven, or Brahms. The Quartet has a
distinctive sound, and with Zehetmair's inspirational leading, they create a
supernatural range of dynamics: from the tiniest pianissimos to violently loud
passages, making even familiar string quartets by Haydn or Schubert sound
shockingly modern.”
London Guardian - August 24, 2004
“Zehetmair’s Weber concert was sparkling throughout.”
The Sunday Times - August 22, 2004
“The Zehetmair are one of
the most exciting young quartets on the circuit today.”
Daily Telegraph - March 29, 2003
If confirmation were
ever needed of Zehetmair’s inspirational talents, it radiates from this
extraordinary recording. The performance brims with a crackling energy, both in
its edgy attacks and in passages of exquisite tenderness.”
Northern Echo - May 22, 2003
“Thomas Zehetmair leads his quartet in performances that are minutely coloured, technically spotless and full of emotional drama.” BBC Music Magazine - May 2003
“Zehetmair and his
players are never heavy handed. They dart or cajole, bend the musical line, vary
their tone, their vibratos and dynamics...these are wonderful performances.”
The Independent
- March 7, 2003
THE ZEHETMAIR
QUARTET - CD REVIEWS
“Full of excitement and tone colours and evocative playing.”
BBC Music Magazine – February 2006
“Hailed by reviewers worldwide, this
fine CD is finally available here. In this recording, the Zehetmair Quartet
meets Schumann's challenges marvelously, making his restlessness and emotional
fragility constantly apparent. Despite playing modern instruments rather than
the trendy period ones, they maintain the drive and crispness usually associated
with period ensembles. This CD is highly recommended
for all lovers of chamber music. First rate.”
The Jerusalem Post - January
13, 2005
“Thomas Zehetmair's recording of Schumann's A minor and A major string quartets
has a similar quality of intimacy: the clean tone of the Zehetmair Quartet,
their precise articulation and their sensitive phrasing.”
Bloomberg.com - June 27, 2004
“The Zehetmair Quartet’s recording of the first and last quartets scatter the dust from these scores and produce playing of real passion. No music lover who cares about Schumann or string quartets should pass up this insightful and emotional account.”
Pittsburgh City Paper – February 12, 2004
“This is a disc that needs to be
greeted with loud trumpetings because it houses playing of a passion and
intensity that is very rarely encountered on disc. The Zehetmair Qauartet comes
together for periods of intense study, rehearsal, concert-giving and
recording. They are one of very few
quartets who don’t use scores when they perform – and I think you can tell
within a few bars that something special is going on. One of the panelists rang
me after listening to all 15 of the Best of Category discs and said that,
unequivocally, there was only one Record of the Year. It is a belief you, too,
will share from the very first note.
It is stunning.”
Gramophone Awards Issue 2003 – James Jolly
“Quite simply, the best: agile,
excitable, nervously intense and in the slower music, probing to an almost
painful degree. Theirs is a dialogue that brings Schumann’s spirit to life,
which is pretty rare in an age that so often seems unresponsive to Romantic
sensibilities. The performances are profoundly beautiful in their truthful
appropriation of music that can be both poignant and aggressive.”
Gramophone – Rob Cowan
“An exciting new recording of the first and third quartets by the Zehetmair Quartet won "Record of the Year" from the English magazine Gramophone. The performances, led by Austrian violinist Thomas Zehetmair, are exceptionally vital and much more than only physically exhilarating. A strong sense of fantasy enlivens melodies and other lines, while the range of tone color also is highly imaginative.”
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review – October 26, 2003
“If confirmation were ever needed of
Zehetmair’s inspirational talents, it radiates from this extraordinary
recording. The performance brims with a crackling energy, in its edgy attacks
and in passages of exquisite tenderness
Northern Echo - May 22, 2003
“Thomas Zehetmair leads his quartet in performances that are minutely coloured, technically spotless and full of emotional drama.” BBC Music Magazine - May 2003
“The Zehetmair are one of the most exciting young quartets on the circuit today.”
Daily Telegraph - March 29, 2003
“Zehetmair and his players are never heavy handed. They dart or cajole, bend the musical line, vary their tone, their vibratos and dynamics...these are wonderful performance.”
The Independent - March 7, 2003
“The quartets of Robert Schumann wnat to be songful, symphonic, and suggestive all at once, and their protean demands scare most ensembles away. Butt he Zehetmair Quartet, led by the violinist Thomas Zehetmair, is fully up to the challenge, and the group’s new recording on ECM has the force of revelation. Zehetmair and his young colleagues (who gather several times a year for intense, marathon rehearsal sessions and play their music from memory) use extreme contrasts of tempo, tone color and articulation to bring maximum intensity to Schumann’s mercurial moods while somehow retaining a vision of the whole.” The New Yorker – March 3, 2003
“The Zehetmair Quartet
confronts Schumann's challenges, emotional fragility, and his apparent
inconsistencies. The ensemble has a huge tonal palette available, and uses it
all as it strives to make Schumann's scores live for us. An emotional
restlessness underpins almost every bar - they're constantly questioning,
discussing what they find, testing it, and frequently finding far from
comforting answers. Add to that ravishing playing and moments of searing,
radiant beauty. If you didn't think Schumann wrote string quartets, make some
time, and just a little shelf space, for this soul-searching new CD.”
Andrew McGregor, ClassicsToday.com
Karl Amadeus Hartmann: String Quartet No. 1
Bela Bartok: String Quartet No. 4 (ECM- 465 776-2(CD):
“While
the Hartmann work draws inspiration from the Bartók Fourth, it not only pursues
its own path, but also stands as a superior achievement in its own right. The
work's exquisite craftsmanship, wide emotional range, and imaginative textures
add up to a bona fide and sadly overlooked masterpiece. Thomas Zehetmair and his
colleagues command a wide arsenal of articulations, attacks, chordal shadings,
and dynamic levels. Each musician draws upon these devices to heighten the drama
of Hartmann's sudden mood shifts, as well as to clarify his rich yet never
overwrought counterpoint.
The foursome's proficiency and sophistication is every bit
as breathtaking in the Bartók Fourth. It's like listening to a close family
conversing in animated, intense tones, with everyone talking at same time,
finishing each other's thoughts, yet somehow not interrupting one another. The
Prestissimo floats over its bar lines at such a fast clip that the movement
seems over before it starts. But isn't that why God invented the repeat mode, so
you can hear what you missed on the first go-round? High quality ensemble values
and stunning musicianship inform these very special performances. Any rating
less than a 10/10 is tantamount to an insult.”
Jed Distler,
ClassicsToday.com
November 19, 2004 - the renowned violinist THOMAS
ZEHETMAIR was honored in Berlin with a
German Record Critics Award as an outstanding musical personality:
"One of the most
universal violinists of our days, constantly
fascinating in a repertoire reaching from the Baroque to modern music, as a
soloist, chamber musician and recently even as a conductor."