Notos Quartett, Chamber Music at the Clark

Seats will be available for purchase on Tuesday, September 26 at 12:00 p.m. noon, via the following link. General admission seats are $40, and UCLA student seats (for UCLA students only, valid UID for each student required) are $10. Seating at the Clark Library is limited. To receive announcements when concert seats go on sale, please sign up for our mailing list.

SOLD OUT

While we do not maintain a wait list, we do offer same day stand-by seating for all Chamber Music at the Clark concerts. For more information on stand-by seating, please see here

Program

Robert Schumann (1810–1856)
Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, op. 47

Bryce Dessner (1976– )
Spirals for Piano Quartet (Commissioned by Notos Quartett)

Johannes Brahms (1833–1897)
Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, op. 25

Notos Quartett

Sindri Lederer, violin
Andrea Burger, violin
Philip Graham, cello
Antonia Köster, piano

The Notos Quartett is regarded as one of the “outstanding chamber music formations of our time“ (Fono Forum, 9/2017). Besides this piano quartet’s “virtuosic brilliance and technical perfection“ audiences and critics worldwide celebrate the Notos Quartett for its “sense of balance and ensemble playing revealing every detail of the composition“ and praise the musicians for their “profound musicality that goes straight to the heart.”

Since its foundation in 2007 the Notos Quartett has won six first prizes as well as numerous special prizes at international competitions in England, Holland, Italy, and China. Above that in 2017 the quartet was awarded the ECHO Klassik as newcomer of the year, at the time a prestigious prize that in its history had only been given to ensembles on the rarest of occasions.

As a reaction to the ECHO Pop committee’s decision in 2018 to honour an album containing antisemitic and inhumane language, the musicians of the Notos Quartett were the first artists to return their ECHO. This triggered a protest movement that many renowned artists, such as Igor Levit and Daniel Barenboim, followed by returning their prizes. Subsequently the German music industry decided to abolish the brand ECHO completely.

The upcoming season includes concert tours to Switzerland, Spain, Italy, UK, Japan, and USA. Furthermore, the ensemble will be premiering works dedicated to the Notos Quartett by Bryce Dessner and Bernhard Gander. The Notos Quartett’s vision is to perform the well-known masterpieces, to reveal lost and forgotten treasures, and to champion the new compositions for the unique genre of the piano quartet. This is evident on the ensemble’s debut album Hungarian Treasures released by Sony Classical/RCA in February of 2017. It includes the world premiere recording of Béla Bartók’s piano quartet, a rediscovery for which the ensemble receives international acclaim.

The second recording, again released by Sony Classical, is dedicated entirely to the great Romantic Johannes Brahms – with the famous Piano Quartet in G minor and an arrangement of the Symphony no. 3 by Andreas Nikolai Tarkmann created especially for the Notos Quartett.

Numerous broadcasts of concerts, interviews, and portraits on all major German cultural radio stations, German TV, as well as the BBC, France Musique, Radio4 Holland, P2 Sweden, IPR USA, and radio and TV stations in Japan and Vietnam document the world-wide interest in the Notos Quartett and its extraordinary concert programs.

In addition to appearances at major festivals and leading concert halls throughout Europe, such as the Wigmore Hall London, Philharmonie Berlin, Konzerthaus Vienna, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, BOZAR Brussels, Tonhalle Zurich, and Teatro la Fenice Venice as well as major festivals including Rheingau, Schwetzingen, Würzburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lockenhaus, Usedom and Radio France, the Notos Quartett regularly visits such locations as Japan, China, Australia, and Southeast Asia.

Besides its concert activities, the Notos Quartett regards promoting the careers of young musicians as an important part of its work. Thus the ensemble has taught at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, led the “Saigon Chamber Music” Masterclass in Vietnam, and since autumn of 2015 holds the “Notos Chamber Music Academy“, organized since 2019 in collaboration with Jeunesses Musicales, the most prestigious institution for musical education in Germany.

In addition to Günter Pichler, the leader of the legendary Alban Berg Quartet, with whom the quartet studied in Madrid at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía until 2017, the quartet’s companions, teachers, and supporters include the Mandelring Quartet, Menahem Pressler, András Schiff, Clemens Hagen, and Uwe-Martin Haiberg. The support of the Merito String Instruments Trust enables the Notos Quartett to play on highly prestigious instruments by old Italian masters and, as Pirastro Artists, exclusively on strings by the renowned string manufacturer “Pirastro GmbH”.

The Notos Quartett’s tour is supported by the Goethe-Institut.

http://www.notosquartett.de/en

Chamber Music at the Clark
Professor Rogers Brubaker, Artistic Director

Chamber Music at the Clark is made possible by The Ahmanson Foundation, under the auspices of Lee Walcott; The Colburn Foundation; Martha Bardach; Catherine Glynn Benkaim, Ph.D. and Barbara Timmer; Dr. Rogers Brubaker; Dr. Susan Harris and Mark Harris; Judy Hellinger; Henry J. Bruman Endowment for Chamber Music; Dr. Sheldon H. Kardener and Monika Olofsson Kardener; Elaine and Bernie Mendes; Janet Minami; Bette I. and Jeffrey L. Nagin; Dr. Jeanne Robson; Carol E. Sandberg; Jackie Schwartz; Dr. Patricia Bates Simun and Mr. Richard V. Simun Memorial Fund; Patricia Waldron, M.D., and Richard Waldron; and Roberta and Robert Young.

Please see here for more information about our chamber music programs.

Photograph courtesy of the artists.