About
“Gripping, expressive, multi-layered” (SZ) and with a “communicating ensemble sound” (nmz), the Amaryllis Quartet regularly delights audiences and press in its concerts, making it one of the most interesting string quartets of its generation.
In its concert programs as well as in its recordings, it is important to the Amaryllis Quartet to combine classics of the quartet literature in an unusual way with the new, thereby opening up new worlds of listening. The premieres of works by contemporary composers such as Johannes Fischer, David Philip Hefti and Lin Yang occupy just as important a place as the rediscovery of now forgotten masterpieces, such as the string quartets by the Hungarian composer Géza Frid.
The four musicians, who were trained with Walter Levin in Basel, later with the Alban Berg Quartet in Cologne and with Günter Pichler in Madrid, won numerous international prizes, including the finalist prize at the Premio Paolo Borciani 2011 in Reggio Emilia and only four weeks later first prize and the Monash University Grand Prize at the 6th International Chamber Music Competition in Melbourne. In 2012 they were also awarded the Jürgen Ponto Foundation's Chamber Music Prize.
Concert tours led the Amaryllis Quartet, among others to the Alte Oper Frankfurt, the Tonhalle Zürich, the Wiener Musikverein, the Teatro della Pergola Firenze, the Gran Teatro La Fenice di Venezia and the Dai-ichi Seimei Hall Tokyo. It is a regular guest at festivals such as the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Schwetzinger SWR Festival, the Heidelberg Spring, the Rheingau Music Festival, the Mosel Music Festival and the Lucerne Festival.
In addition, the quartet launched its own concert series in the Solothurn concert hall and designed a cycle under the motto “amaryllis 3 × 3” in the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, the Lübeck Colosseum and the Bremen broadcasting hall.
In January 2019 the quartet made its debut in the great hall of Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie.
The chamber music partners of the Amaryllis Quartet included Dimitri Ashkenazy, François Benda, Reto Bieri, Barbara Buntrock, Patrick Demenga, Nobuko Imai, Volker Jacobsen, Thorsten Johanns, Matthias Kirschnereit, Jens Peter Maintz, Gustav Rivinius and Barbara Westphal.
The 2011 CD “White” with works by Haydn and Webern was awarded the ECHO Klassik in 2012 for the best chamber music recording of the year. It formed the prelude to the “color series”, which was highly praised by the press, in which works from different eras are related to one another.
In addition to its concert activities, the quartet also regularly passes on its experience to the next generation in master classes, at festivals and at various German music academies.