The concert of Bennewitz Quartet at Czech Center New York is another significant event of the Year of Czech Music 2024, which is part of the quartet's US tour. Apart from the concert at the Bohemian National Hall, the quartet will present a master class at New York University, and perform in Washington, D.C., Connecticut and California.
Program of the concert:
Erwin Schulhoff: Five Pieces for String Quartet
Leoš Janáček: String Quartet No. 2 “Intimate Letters"
- Intermission -
Antonín Dvořák: String Quartet No. 13 in G Major, Op. 106
Free registration here.
The Bennewitz Quartet
Jakub Fišer and Štěpán Ježek – violins
Jiří Pinkas – viola
Štěpán Doležal – violoncello
Master Class at New York University will take place in collaboration with Prof. Michael Beckerman, Carroll and Milton Petrie Professor of Music and Collegiate Professor at New York University.
The Bennewitz Quartet is one of the top ensembles on the international chamber music scene. After winning two prestigious competitions – Osaka Chamber Music and Festa 2005 and Prémio Paolo Borciani, Italy 2008, they quickly gained the acclaim of the critics. The ensemble has received various awards and in 2019 the four musicians won the Classic Prague Award for the Best Chamber Music Performance of the year.
In the 2023/24 season the Bennewitz Quartet will return to numerous stages in Europe (Stuttgart, Mannheim, Heidelberg, Linz, Bilbao) and will make its debut in Klagenfurt, Darmstadt and Duisburg. The quartet will tour again in the United States and Canada, and will continue various concert projects in Czech republic including its engagement in Dvořák’s integral string quartet performance within the Dvořák’s Prague Festival. The ensemble is currently preparing the release of its new CD featuring the string quartets by “those that used to play together” - Haydn, Mozart, Vaňhal and Dittersdorf.
Since 1998 the quartet bears the name of the violinist and director of a music conservatory in Prague, Antonín Bennewitz (1833-1926) who contributed greatly to the establishment of the Czech violin school. The most significant musicians who count among his disciples are Otakar Ševčík and František Ondříček and above all Karel Hoffman, Josef Suk and Oskar Nedbal who, under Bennewitz’s influence, formed the famous Bohemian Quartet.
More about the Bennewitz Quartet here.
“The round, sensual, silky sound of the Bennewitz recalls the great tradition of twentieth-century Czech ensembles. Their interpretations are distinguished by a perfect mastery of style and real experience with this repertoire”. – Diapason, September 2023 (Haydn)
“…enjoyment and vitality of a young ensemble at the height of its powers.” – Sueddeutsche Zeitung, January 2015
