CHAMBER CONCERT
Friday, 05.09.2008, 19.30 in the Carolinum
Program:
Bedřich Smetana: Polkas from the 1st and 2nd String Quartets
Franz Schubert: Quintet in C Major for Two
Violoncellos, D956
The Bennewitz Quartet
Jiři Němeček -
Violin
tĕpán Ježek - Violin
Jiři Pinkas -
Viola
tĕpán Doležal - Violoncello
Soon after its establishment at
the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague
in 1998, the Bennewitz Quartet found its way among prominent Czech chamber
ensembles. It was named after the famous Czech violinist and teacher Antonín Bennewitz (1833-1926).
Two renowned personalities played a crucial role in the Quartet’s
artistic development: Professor Rainer Schmidt (Hagen Quartet) whose classes
the Bennewitz Quartet attended at the Escuela
Superior de Música Reina Sofía
in Madrid (2002–2004); and Professor Walter Levin (LaSalle Quartet) who worked
with them at the Basel Musikakademie between 2004 and
2006. At this time, the Bennewitz Quartet was also engaged as the Musikakademie’s residential ensemble, conducting, apart
from their own study projects, classes of chamber music for young quartet
ensembles.
Besides various minor awards (for instance, Bohuslav
Martinu Foundation Prize, 2001; Laureate Prize of the
Czech Chamber Music Society, 2004; National Presentation Concerts Award,
Amsterdam, 2004; FNAPEC Scholarship, Paris, 2006), the Bennewitz Quartet received, in 2004, two special prizes (Theodor Rogler Foundation Prize and Bärenreiter
Urtext Prize) at the ARD Competition in Munich,
Germany; in 2005, the Gold Medal at the International Chamber Music Competition
in Osaka, Japan; and in June 2008, the first prize in the Premio
Paolo Borciani string quartet contest in Reggio Emilia, Italy.
A prize winner tour of 50 concerts will take the four young Czechs to
important concert series throughout Europe, the USA and Japan during the season
2008-2009, including concerts in Tokyo,
New York, Los Angeles, Hamburg, Bremen, Stuttgart, Brussels, Basel, Rome and
Florence.
The Bennewitz
Quartet already participated in various international music festivals (Rheingau Festival and Heidelberger Frühling
– Germany; Lucerne Festival – Switzerland; Orlando
Festival – Netherlands; Prague Spring Festival – Czech Republic), and performed
in prominent European concert halls (Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Auditorio Nacional de Madrid, Herkulessaal Munich, or Rudolfinum
Prague).
Besides a number of CDs, the Bennewitz Quartet made several recordings
for the Czech Radio and Czech Television, as well as for a number of radio and
television companies abroad (SWR, BR and NWR – Germany, Radio 4 – Netherlands,
ORF
Austria, Rádio Clásica
– Spain, STV Radio, Yomiuri TV – Japan). In Spring
2008 their latest CD with both string quartets of Janaček and
Bartoks 4th String Quartet has been released
under the label
"Coviello
Classics."
2008/2009
Impresariat Simmenauer • Phone: +49/ (0)40/ 42 31 31 11 •
www.impresariat-simmenauer.de
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