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auryn
quartet
Auryn Quartet Availability
What the critics say:
“…glowing timbres…”
— The New York Times
“…mesmerizing solo and ensemble playing…”
— All Things Strings, Los Angeles
“They breathe perfectly with one breath, yet each voice retains its autonomy…”
— General Anzeiger Bonn
“The Auryn is a quartet in the European tradition that blends elegance of sound with seamless phrasing and clarity of detail."
— The Cleveland Plain Dealer
“...members interact with a sensitivity that seems almost telepathic.”
— The Washington Post
“Beyond these moments of epiphany, the Auryns possess a sense of latent power that creates a superb kind of musical tension, a rare ability to phrase with a kind of radiant Italianate grace and in hypnotic big picture arches, and to do so as with one voice...There is no shortage of great and famous Beethoven cycles, but there are no performances such as these. For me this is the set to beat.”
— Gramophone
"Wow. This, when done, will rank with the finest Haydn Quartet series."
— Audiophile Audition
Winner Echo Klassic 2009, 2010
Matthias Lingenfelder, Jens Oppermann, violins | Stewart Eaton, viola Andreas Arndt, cello
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October of 2021 will see the Auryn Quartet’s Farewell Tour of North America. After an outstanding career of four decades as one ofthe most sought-after and respected ensembles performing on the major stages world-wide, the quartet has decided to retire at the end of 2021. Over this long period, the quartet has not changed its personnel and still offers its fresh, and pioneering approach to all genres of music. It’s long-lasting success is described well in the words of one of Germany’s major presenters:
“Those who for 40 years have performed successfully on chamber music and other stages, definitely must have done a lot – if not everything – the right way.”
The quartet won its first prizes at the London International Competition and the ARD Munich Competition, both in 1982, one year after its inception. The ensemble also won the main prize at the European Broadcasting Competition in Bratislava in 1989. Invitations to international music festivals followed in quick succession: Lockenhaus, Salzburger Festspiele, Edinburgh International Festival, Musiktage-Mondsee, Stavangar festivals, to name just a few.
The ensemble regularly tours in North America and has appeared, among others, at the Frick Collection, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in New York, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the National Gallery in DC, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Notre Dame University, in Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver. For many years, the ensemble was the quartet-in-residence at the Schubert & Schubert Festival at Washington’s Georgetown University.
The quartet has had many wonderful musical partnerships, with performers such as Menahem Pressler, Tabea Zimmermann, Alexander Lonquich, Sharon Kam, Julian Bliss, Nobuko Imai, Christian Poltéra, Peter Orth, Michael Tree, Cecile Licad, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Christine Schäfer and many others.
The Auryn has been working exclusively with the TACET record label since 2000 and among its vast catalogue are recordings of the complete string quartets by Haydn (68 quartets in all !), Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms, not to mention the recordings of the “Haydn-Quartets” by Mozart. The award-winning Fauré, Brahms and Schumann piano quintets with Peter Orth, along with its most recent recording of the complete Mozart viola quintets with Nobuko Imai, makes for a very compelling discography.
The Auryn‘s main mentors were the Amadeus Quartet and the Guarneri Quartet, with which they studied from 1982 to 1987 in Cologne and at the University of Maryland respectively. Claudio Abbado was also an important influence on the quartet‘s development, under whose baton its members were string principles in the European Union Youth Orchestra. Since 2003 the Quartet has been sharing its wealth of experience with musicians of younger generations, in the form of a teaching position at the Music Academy in Detmold, Germany where they are professors for chamber music.
The four musicians of the Auryn Quartet play on wonderful Italian instruments: a Stradivari violin (1722 Ex-Joachim), a Petrus Guarneri violin, a Brothers Amati viola (1616), and a Niccolo Amati cello.
A personal note from Shupp Artists:
“You will be greatly missed “
— Erica and Mona Shupp
More what the critics say:
“They breathe perfectly with one breath, yet each voice retains its autonomy…”
— General Anzeiger Bonn
“…as temperatures plummeted on Sunday afternoon, it felt particularly welcome to bask in the Auryn Quartet’s glowing timbres… The rich tone and bold gestures of Mr. Lingenfelder, the first violinist, were aptly mirrored by his colleagues. …the program also included a sensually rendered interpretation of Ravel’s Quartet in F, whose finale unfolded with a balance of fiery declamation and sultry poise.”
— The New York Times
“…unsurpassed attention to detail and expressiveness.”
— Daily News Palm Beach
“…mesmerizing solo and ensemble playing…”
— All Things Strings, Los Angeles
"The Auryns comprise one of today’s finest String Quartets....”
— Ottawa Citizen
"From the opening measures of the Mendelssohn F minor Quartet it was clear that this is one hot ensemble (questions of ambient temperature aside). They naturally had all the technical virtues that anyone could wish: intonation, balance, blend and precision of ensemble. On top of that they brought an impressive passion to the music, while never going over the top. Finally they had an indefinably solid ‘German’ sound."
— Ottawa Citizen
"Wow. This, when done, will rank with the finest Haydn Quartet series."
— Audiophile Audition
"After hearing the Auryn Quartet at Bates College's Olin Hall on Sunday, my only regret is that I did not attend all of the concerts in their Beethoven cycle there. The quartet is quite simply the best I have ever encountered, anywhere. If they maintained Sunday's level of passionate intensity in all of the Beethoven quartets, then their accomplishment is miraculous. Come to think of it, their first violinist does look a little like Paganini."
— Portland Herald Press
"This is a highlight in the discography of the Auryn Quartet, and one of the most beautiful Brahms recording in the whole catalogue."
— FonoForum
"Exemplary! Interpretations of the three Brahms string quartets that are gripping from the first note to the last can be counted on one hand... a minutely thought-out brilliant reading that is full of tension."
— Klassik Heute
“Beyond these moments of epiphany, the Auryns possess a sense of latent power that creates a superb kind of musical tension, a rare ability to phrase with a kind of radiant Italianate grace and in hypnotic big picture arches, and to do so as with one voice...There is no shortage of great and famous Beethoven cycles, but there are no performances such as these. For me this is the set to beat.”
— Gramophone
“A great quartet: the Auryn…an ensemble that revealed from the onset the highest technical and musical level of accomplishment.”
— La Presse, Montreal
“The Auryn is a quartet in the European tradition that blends elegance of sound with seamless phrasing and clarity of detail."
— The Cleveland Plain Dealer
“ The playing, by a group that has been garnering golden opinions for two decades, is absolutely first rate.”
— The Strad
“...members interact with a sensitivity that seems almost telepathic”
— The Washington Post
“Over and over again, the Auryn surprised with an illuminating tone and flexibility of sound.”
— Frankfurter Allgemeine
“Sensitive, strong and finely integrated performances.”
— Gramophone
“The Auryn plays with an enviable balance of abandon and discipline.”
— American Record Guide
“In beauty and confidence of its playing, the Auryn somewhat recalled the now-disbanded Cleveland Quartet.”
— San Antonio Express
“Just when you think you’ve heard it all before, a new group comes to town, and blows you away.”
— The Washington Post
“…shared spirituality..”
— The New York Times
“To produce such an exciting Schubert would be hard for most of today’s quartets.”
— Frankfurter Rundschau
“One left the Wigmore thinking of nothing but Schubert, for the Auryn Quartet gave a compellingly dramatic and magnificently assured performance.”
— The Times, London
“...exceptionally subtle textures…. enthusiastically recommended!”
— Fanfare
“Concert of the century with the Auryn Quartet….The Auryn Quartet’s interpretation of Schubert’s G major Quartet D 887 will enter the annals.”
— Hamburger Abendblat
“…one of the great hopefuls of the truly not-so-small international quartet scene. The excellent reputation of this Cologne ensemble is based upon perfect intonation, exquisite ensemble, a pleasing an sonorous timbre, and stylistically acurate, intense interpretations.”
— FonoForum
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