Leipzig String Quartet to perform all-Beethoven program on March 3

OBERLIN, OHIO — The New York Times calls the Leipzig String Quartet “an eloquent, refined ensemble,” and Gramophone magazine hails them as “master chamber musicians who have skyrocketed to fame.” On Sunday, March 3, the Leipzig String Quartet will perform an all-Beethoven program on Oberlin College’s Artist Recital Series. The concert will begin at 4:00 p.m. in Finney Chapel. Tickets are $15–$42 and are available by calling Oberlin’s Central Ticket Service at 1-800-371-0178 or online at oberlin.edu/arseries.

Since its founding two decades ago, the Leipzig String Quartet has garnered the attention of international critics and audiences with its distinctive dark timbre and meticulously sculpted interpretations of a widely varied repertoire. Formed originally by the string principals of the renowned Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the quartet continues to uphold the principles of sound and integrity ascribed to this great orchestra. Called “one of the towering and most versatile quartets of our time” by the Neue Zuercher Zeitung and lauded by the New York Times for presenting “rich, mellow, unadulterated beauty,” the quartet is considered one of the world’s great chamber ensembles.

Today, the quartet performs widely throughout Europe at major halls and festivals. Since 1991, the quartet has had its own Pro Quatuor series at the Gewandhaus where it has offered a multi-year cycle of the major quartets of the First and Second Viennese School, in addition to premières and performances of new works by Alfred Schnittke and Wolfgang Rihm.

The Leipzig String Quartet also tours annually throughout North America. Recent performances at major U. S. cultural destinations included Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Frick Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Wolf Trap, Library of Congress, and chamber music series in Baltimore, Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, Los Angeles, Ottawa, and Toronto. During the 2011–12 season, the quartet have endeared themselves to audiences through innovative programming, including a “choose-your-own-Beethoven” program, which allows the audience to select the three Beethoven quartets to be performed just one hour before the concert.

Having released over 60 recordings of repertoire spanning Mozart to Cage, the quartet has received numerous recognitions for these projects. Strings magazine proclaimed the quartet’s recordings of the complete string quartet works of Franz Schubert to be “of the highest order, the interpretations bracing and intense, and the recordings themselves ideal in clarity, richness of sound, and naturalness of acoustics.”  

As a member of the Leipzig Ensemble Avantgard, the quartet remains on the forefront of contemporary music and enjoys collaborating with other artists including Alfred Brendel, Marc-André Hamelin, Joseph Kalichstein, Menahem Pressler, and acclaimed klezmer clarinetist Giora Feidman, among others.  

Leipzig String Quartet
Finney Chapel, Oberlin College
90 North Professor Street
Oberlin, Ohio 44074

Tickets: $42 public; $37 Seniors/OC Staff, Faculty, & Alumni; $15 Students
All tickets $3 more at the door.
Tickets can be purchased through Oberlin’s Central Ticket Service at 800-371-0178 or online at www.oberlin.edu/arseries

All-Beethoven Program: 

Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 18, No. 6, “La Maliconia” 

Quartet in F Minor, Op. 95, “Serioso” 

Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 127 

About the Artist Recital Series at Oberlin College
Since the inception of the Artist Recital Series in 1878, more than 1,000 of the most acclaimed and accomplished musicians, conductors, orchestras, chamber ensembles, and composers have graced the stage of Finney Chapel at Oberlin College.

The Oberlin Conservatory of Music at Oberlin College sponsors the Artist Recital Series with additional support from the Friends of the Artist Recital Series. Media sponsorship for the Artist Recital Series is provided by WCLV 104.9-FM, Cleveland’s classical music radio station; WCPN ideastream; and 89.7 WKSU. Corporate sponsorship is provided by the Riverside Company.