Biography

Sindri Lederer - violin
Andrea Burger - viola
Philip Graham - Cello
Antonia Köster - Piano
 

The Notos Quartet 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 Quartet 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 Quartet 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.

The Notos Quartet’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 received international acclaim.

The Notos Quartett's second recording by SONY Classical - a co-production with Deutschlandfunk Kultur - has been released in March 2021. This CD is dedicated entirely to the great Romantic composer Johannes Brahms and features the famous Piano Quartet in G minor and the Symphony No. 3 in an arrangement by Andreas Nikolai Tarkmann created especially for the Notos Quartett.

Upcoming seasons include concert tours to Japan and China as well as performances at concert halls such as the Tonhalle Zurich, Konzerthaus Berlin, International House of Music Moscow and Wigmore Hall London. Furthermore the ensemble will be premiering works dedicated to the Notos Quartet by Bernhard Gander, Aaron Jay Kernis and Bryce Dessner.

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 Quartet and its extraordinary concert programmes.

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 Quartet 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.

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 and Teatro la Fenice Venice, the Notos Quartet regularly visits such exotic locations as Southeast Asia, where the players not only give recitals but also seek to promote the careers of young musicians, which they regard as an important part of their work. In England and Germany, too, they inspire young musicians as founders of the Notos Chamber Music Academy and, in the past, as holders of the Waverley Chamber Music Fellowship at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.

Among others, the Alban Berg Quartet, Mandelring Quartet as well as Uwe-Martin Haiberg, Clemens Hagen, Menahem Pressler and András Schiff count to the quartet's mentors, teachers and supporters.

The support of the „Merito String Instruments Trust“ enables the Notos Quartet to play on old valuable Italian string instruments and as Pirastro Artists exclusively on strings by the renowned string manufacturer „Pirastro GmbH“.

Programmes

Programme proposals

• Bartók-Discovery
  Schumann: Piano Quartet in E flat major, Op. 47
  Dessner: „El Chan“ (2016)
  Bartók: Piano Quartet in C minor, Op. 20

• France
  Mozart: Piano Quartet in E flat major, KV 493
  Françaix: Divertissement for piano quartet (1933)
  Brahms: Piano Quartet in G minor, Op. 25

• England
  Bridge: Phantasy in F sharp minor (1910)
  Walton: Piano Quartet (1924/76)
  Brahms: Piano Quartet in A major, Op. 26

• Dvořák
  Dvořák: Piano Quartet in D major, Op. 23
  Martinů: Piano Quartet No.1 (1942)
  Dvořák: Piano Quartet in E flat major, Op. 87

• Correlations
  Brahms: Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 90
  (arrangement for the Notos Quartett by A. N. Tarkmann)
  Schönberg: String Trio, Op. 45 (1946)
  Brahms: Piano Quartet in G minor, Op. 25

• Austria I
  Mozart: Piano Quartet in E flat major, KV 493
  Furrer: New work for piano quartet
  (dedicated to the Notos Quartett, from 2020)
  Brahms: Piano Quartet in G minor, Op. 25

• Austria II
  

  Mozart: Piano Quartet in E flat major, KV 493
  Gander: New work for piano quartet
  (dedicated to the Notos Quartett, from 05/2020)
  Brahms: Piano Quartet in G minor, Op.25

• The Trout
  

  Schubert: Piano Quintet in A major 'The Trout', D 667
  Brahms: Piano Quartet in G minor, Op. 25 or Piano Quartet in A major, Op. 26