Leipziger Streichquartett is now widely acclaimed as one of the most exciting string quartets in the international chamber music scene.
The Quartet, founded in 1988 has studied with the Amadeus Quartet, Gerhard Bosse, Hatto Beyerle and Walter Levin, and was granted scholarships by the Amadeus Scholarship and the Foundation of Cultural Funds. Since then, the Leipziger Streichquartett has won many international prizes, including the ARD Competition in Munich, the Busch Brothers Award in 1991 and the Siemens Music Award in 1992.
By now, the Leipziger Streichquartett has toured more than 40 countries in Europe, North and South America, North Africa, Asia, Australia, Japan and Israel and has been invited to perform at major international festivals such as Berliner Festwochen, Bregenzer Festspiele, Schubertiade Hohenems, and the festivals of Schleswig-Holstein, Gstaad, Montpellier, Bath and Brighton. It served as Quartet-in-Residence at the International European Festival of Stuttgart. The Quartet has appeared with many well-known artists including Christian Zacharias and Andreas Staier, piano, Karl Leister and Paul Meyer, clarinet, Michael Sanderling, cello, Hartmut Rohde, viola, and the "King of Klezmer" Giora Feidmann.
In 1991, the Quartet established its own string quartet series "Pro quatuor", where it will perform all string quartets of the 1st and 2nd Viennese School at the Gewandhaus Leipzig during the coming years. The ensemble was also one of the initiators of the "Beethoven-Cycle", in which six major European string quartets participated in performing all of the Beethoven string quartets in more than 15 European cities during the 97/98 season.
The Leipzig String Quartet's repertoire includes approximately 200 compositions by 55 composers. As members of the "Ensemble Avantgarde Leipzig" the quartet divides its time between performing contemporary music and that composed between 1900 and 1940. In 1993, it was awarded the Schneider-Schott award by the city of Mainz. Several contemporary string quartets were premiered by the Leipzig musicians.
The Leipzig String Quartet has recorded the complete string quartet works of Franz Schubert on a total of nine CDs, which have received wide critical acclaim at home and abroad. In addition, it has recorded the complete string quartets of Paul Dessau, Anton Webern, Hanns Eisler and Theodor W. Adorno as well as quartets of Beethoven, Brahms and Mozart on an additional 20 CD. They are in process of editing the complete works of the 2nd Viennese School on CD. Since 1992, the quartet records its extended repertory exclusively with the German company Dabringhaus und Grimm Music Productions.
Their recordings have been given the Indie Award (Atlanta/USA 1999) in the category of “Ensemble Classical” for Beethoven’s string quartets op. 131 & op. 135, the “Echo Classic Award” (Germany) in 1999 for “The Trout” by Franz Schubert and in 2000 for the “Prussian Quartets” by W.A. Mozart as well as the Editor’s Choice of Gramophone for the same edition.
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