Henschel Quartett & Diogenes Quartett
Biography Henschel Quartett & Diogenes Quartett
Diogenes Quartett
We owe it to the same stroke of luck that the Diogenes Quartet will celebrate its 20th anniversary this season.
Founded in Munich in 1998, these four musical idealists worked together in their early years with such outstanding ensembles as the Amadeus Quartet and the LaSalle Quartet. Besides the masterpieces of the classical-romantic repertoire, they focus on performing unknown and contemporary compositions. They cultivate a close working relationship with the Munich composer Pierre-Dominique Ponnelle, recently giving the première of his Third String Quartet and receiving the dedication of his Fourth.
Their itinerary encompasses not only the Würzburg Mozart Festival and the Festival de Radio France et Montpellier but regular tours of nearby and distant countries. Highlights of the past include a tour of Mexico, and this year they will give guest performances in Italy and continue their regular tours of Spain, where among other things they will perform Bohuslav Martinů’s Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra.
Among their chamber music partners are Anna Prohaska, Tyler Duncan, Lydia Dubrovskaya, Priya Mitchell, Hariolf Schlichtig, Roland Glassl, Wen-Sinn Yang, Nabil Shehata, Thorsten Johanns and the Henschel Quartet.
The ensemble also has a penchant for crossover programmes, as when they thrilled audiences with ‘A Dream of Brahms’, played jointly with the jazz quartet of violinist Max Grosch. No less important to them is music outreach, as can be seen in their many children’s concerts, workshop recitals and chamber music clinics. Since 2015 they have also been active as cultural ambassadors for SOS Children’s Villages.
The discography of the Diogenes Quartet is as long as it is varied. In addition to many première recordings, they produced a highly acclaimed complete set of Schubert quartets for the Brilliant Classics label. In autumn 2019 their recording of Max Reger’s String Sextet and Clarinet Quintet will be released on cpo.
The quartet owes its name to their longstanding friendship with Rudolph C. Bettschart, the former co-owner of the Swiss publishing firm Diogenes, who deeply impressed them with his personality and career and will always remain lovingly enshrined in their memory .
Henschel Quartet
The year 1994 marked the foundation of the Henschel Quartett’s international career, when cellist Mathias Beyer-Karlshøj joined the founding members Christoph, Markus, and Monika Henschel, and the quartet devoted itself exclusively to chamber music. In 1995 the quartet won multiple prizes at the international competitions of Evian, Banff, and Salzburg, and the following year won 1st prize and the gold medal at the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition. Successful debuts in the world’s musical capitals, including an acclaimed BBC live broadcast standing in for the Juilliard Quartet, led their way to the forefront of international chamber music. “This is, no question, one of the best groups in the world, a great string quartet.” (Los Angeles Times). In September 2019 the quartet welcomed the celebrated violinist Teresa la Cour as a new member.
The quartet’s musical journey has included many remarkable highlights. The Henschel Quartett played at the official re-opening of the Anna-Amalia Library in Weimar (a UNESCO World Heritage site), and travelled to Brussels as a Cultural Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany. In March 2010 the quartet was privileged to perform at the Vatican in the presence of Pope Benedict XVI. The quartet has regularly been invited to the Royal Palace of Madrid to perform on the four Stradivari of the royal collection. In June 2012 the Henschel Quartett was invited, as the first European quartet in twenty years, to perform Beethoven’s complete string quartets in the prestigious Suntory Hall in Tokyo. In the same year Monika Henschel became the president of the newly-formed Association of German String Quartets, and in 2013 Christoph Henschel was appointed Honorary Professor at the University of Augsburg.
Highlights of last season and the current one include appearances in London, Amsterdam, Munich, Yokohama and Tokyo (Geidai University).
The Henschel Quartett’s recordings have been awarded many prizes, including the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik and several CD of the Year Awards (IMW). Their CDs have been recommended in such prominent titles as Gramophone Magazine, the Sunday Times, and the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Forthcoming is a CD of works by Christopher Theofanidis.
The Henschel Quartett regularly accepts invitations to teach at world-class institutions, from Yale University in the USA to the Royal Northern College of Music in England and the University of Melbourne in Australia. The quartet is also engaged in an ongoing dialogue with the Bavarian Ministry of Culture in relation to youth music projects in the quartet’s home city of Munich.
