Sunday, January 21, 2024 - 3:00 PM
This young German quartet has already performed at major halls around the world including Vienna’s Konzerthaus, London’s Wigmore Hall, and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall. Making its debut, the Goldmund offers a program featuring Borodin’s celebrated work.
Webern: Langsamer Satz
Borodin: D-major Quartet
Schumann: A-major Quartet, Op. 41, No. 3
Sponsored by an Anonymous Donor
RUNTIME: 2 HOURS
Union College
Memorial Chapel
Schenectady, NY
General Admission seating – doors open 45 minutes before concert.
All kids and college students admitted free at door.
Ticket information and policies
“Downright scary-good” - KUSC Blog
Goldmund Quartet is known to feature “exquisite playing” and such “multi-layered homogeneity” (Süddeutsche Zeitung) in its interpretations of the great classical and modern works of the quartet literature. Its inwardness, the unbelievably fine intonation, and the phrases worked out down to the smallest detail inspire audiences worldwide.
The Quartet is now counted amongst the leading string quartets of the younger generation worldwide which is reflected in their 23-24 Season calendar. Highlights include the quartet’s debut at prestigious festivals such as Festival Dolomites, Settimane Musicali di Ascona, and Viotti Festival in Vercelli, Italy. The ensemble will return to important halls such as Concertgebouw Amsterdam in a recital with pianist Fazil Say, to Tokyo Opera City as part of a tour of Japan as well as to the United States for a substantial tour to perform in Boston and many others. Further return visits lead the quartet to the renowned Hörtnagel series in Munich, Haus der Musik Innsbruck, and Schwetzingen Festival.
The winners of the renowned 2018 International Wigmore Hall String Competition and the 2018 Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition have been selected by the European Concert Hall Organisation as Rising Stars of the 2019-20 season. Since 2019, they have been performing Antonio Stradivari's Paganini Quartet, provided by the Nippon Music Foundation. In addition, the quartet was awarded the Jürgen Ponto Foundation Music Prize in March 2020 and the Freiherr von Waltershausen Prize in December 2020. In 2016, Goldmund Quartet was already a winner of the Bavarian Arts Promotion Prize and the Karl Klinger Prize of the ARD Competition.
Following their 2020 release on Berlin Classics of Travel Diaries, the quartet's third album with works by Wolfgang Rihm, Ana Sokolovic, Fazil Say, and Dobrinka Tabakova, 2023 marks the release of two new important recordings. Enigma, published on Berlin Classic’s Neue Meister series as a limited vinyl release features contemporary works by Arvo Pärt, Philip Glass, and Uno Helmersson alongside two newly commissioned pieces by Pascal Schumacher and Sophia Jani. Death and the Maiden is a recording of works by Schubert, in the quartet’s own words: “The eternal wanderer has fascinated and accompanied us since the beginning of our quartet life, his chamber music was among the first works we performed.”
Chamber music partners include artists such as Jörg Widmann, Ksenija Sidorova, Alexander Krichel, Alexey Stadler and Wies de Boevé, Nino Gvetadze, Noa Wildschut, Elisabeth Brauss, Maximilian Hornung, Frank Dupree, Simon Höfele.
In addition to studies at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich and with members of Alban Berg Quartet, including Günter Pichler at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofia and Artemis Quartet in Berlin, masterclasses and studies with members of the Hagen, Borodin, Belcea, Ysaye, and Cherubini Quartets, Ferenc Rados, Eberhard Feltz, and Alfred Brendel gave the quartet important musical impulses.
