BELA BARTOK

 

String Quartets 5 & 6

 

Arcanto Quartet:

Antje Weithaas, Daniel Sepec (violins)

Tabea Zimmermann (viola)

Jean-Guihen Queyras (cello)

 

The Bartók quartets occupy a place as important as Beethoven's. The last two, written in 1934 and 1939 respectively, bear powerful witness to the creative attitude of a composer engaged in a phase of uncompromising experimentation while still remaining closely involved in events in Europe on the eve of the Second World War. Composed shortly before Bartók

went into exile in the USA, the heartrending Quartet No.6 was to be his farewell to the form.

 

This is the first recording by the Arcanto Quartet, founded in 2002, comprising four musicians who have already made their names as soloists, and attracted considerable attention. Their first concert in Stuttgart, June 2004 met with great success. Since then the quartet has appeared in Bonn, Utrecht, Paris, Brussels, Cologne, Vienna, Athens, Madrid, Milan, at the Wigmore Hall, in Frankfurt, at the Concertgebouw and on their first tour of Japan.

 

Antje Weithaas studied the violin with Werner Scholtz in Berlin, before embarking on a career that has taken her throughout Europe as well as to Japan, Singapore, and South Africa. In addition to the great classics, her repertoire includes rare gems by composers like Korngold, Hartmann and Schoeck.  Daniel Sepec was appointed leader of the Deutsche  Kammerphilharmonie of Bremen in 1993. Fascinated by the rich heritage of Baroque music, he also appears regularly as leader of the Balthasar Neumann Ensemble under Thomas Hengelbrock. His disc on Beethoven's violin was recorded for harmonia mundi with Andreas Staier.

 

Tabea Zimmermann studied with Sándor Végh. She devotes a considerable portion of her activity to contemporary music, having given the premiere of the Sonata for solo viola that Ligeti dedicated to her (1994) and of works by Sally Beamish,Wolfgang Rihm and Heinz Holliger, among others. Tabea Zimmermann has played in the world's foremost concert halls.

After studying in Lyon and Freiburg and at the Juilliard School in New York, Jean-Guihen Queyras became a soloist in the Ensemble InterContemporain in Paris, under the direction of Pierre Boulez.The repertoire and performance techniques of the Baroque repertoire are as familiar to him as contemporary music. This double experience enables him to bring a fresh eye to the standard classics.

 

Harmonia Mundi HMC901963