The Leonkoro Quartet plays Haydn, Schumann and Rihm

Leonkoro Quartett (photo: Nikolaj Lund)

“The Leonkoro Quartet has given me a most pleasant surprise: ravishing quartet playing, the likes of which I haven’t heard for a long time,” said composer Wolfgang Rihm of this ensemble. Founded in 2019, it is among the most exciting newcomers on the chamber-music scene. The quartet has a special relationship with Rihm’s music, and at this concert it will introduce us to his mysterious, allusive Ninth String Quartet. The other two items on the programme are repertoire classics: Haydn’s Op. 33 No. 3, with its main theme suggesting birdsong, and Schumann’s romantic, melodious A major Quartet.

Leonkoro Quartet

Jonathan Schwarz violin

Amelie Wallner violin

Mayu Konoe viola

Lukas Schwarz cello

Joseph Haydn

String Quartet in C major, op. 33 No. 3 Hob. III:39

Wolfgang Rihm

String Quartet No. 9

Robert Schumann

String Quartet in A major, op. 41 No. 3

Dates and Tickets

Biographies

Leonkoro Quartett

Founded in Berlin in 2019, the Leonkoro Quartet "has an enormous stage presence, glows for the music, takes full risks and amazes with its sensitivity to the respective sonority of the pieces," according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Rarely has a young string quartet established itself on the international stage at such breathtaking speed; the Süddeutsche Zeitung praised the ensemble’s "youthful joy of sound and fiery vitality". The quartet - whose name is based on the Esperanto word for "lion heart" - is framed by the brothers Jonathan and Lukas Schwarz on first violin and cello, while Amelie Wallner on second violin and Mayu Konoe on viola provide the middle voices. In addition to studying chamber music with Heime Müller (Artemis Quartet) at the Musikhochschule Lübeck, the quartet is trained by Günter Pichler (primarius of the Alban Berg Quartet) at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía Madrid. The young ensemble’s major international breakthrough came in 2022, with the Jürgen Ponto Foundation Prize, which is awarded every two years for outstanding string quartets, first prizes at string quartet competitions at Wigmore Hall and in Bordeaux, and inclusion in the BBC's New Generation Artist program. In the current season, the Leonkoro Quartet is making a whole series of important debuts, including at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Vienna Konzerthaus - and today at the Philharmonie Berlin.