Apollon Musagète Quartett

MENDELSSOHN, STRAVINSKY, PROKOFIEV, SHOSTAKOVICH

Chamber music ensembles that primarily strive for a sweet, sentimental tone are definitely a thing of the past. Today we are spoiled by a generation of young string quartets that combine high individual standards with style-conscious and transparent interpretations. The Apollon Musagète Quartett, awarded a first prize at the ARD Musikwettbewerb in 2008, certainly fits in here. The four young Poles play both Haydn and Szymanovski with equal conviction, and they manage to make even the most difficult quartet music accessible and fascinating. They took their name from the ballet Apollon Musagète by Igor Stravinsky. A Russian program is tailor-made for them. Stravinsky's neo-baroque Concertino from 1920 is a mini-concerto for solo violin and three strings. Dmitri Shostakovich's fourth string quartet from 1949, with its perfect form and lyrical passages, refers to the late string quartets of Joseph Haydn. From Prokofiev we hear an arrangement of some Visions Fugitives, his modernist piano pieces from 1915-1917.

Apollon Musagète Quartett:Pawel Zalejski (violin), Bartosz Zachlod (violin) , Piotr Szumiel (viola), Piotr Skweres (cello)