Chiaroscuro Quartet MOZART - SCHUBERT

Formed in 2005, the Chiaroscuro Quartet consists of the violinists Alina Ibragimova (Russia) and Pablo Hernán Benedí (Spain), the Swedish violist Emilie Hörnlund and cellist Claire Thirion from France. Dubbed ‘a trailblazer for the authentic performance of High Classical chamber music’ in Gramophone, this highly international ensemble performs music of the Classical period on gut strings. The quartet’s unique sound – described in The Observer as ‘a shock to the ears of the best kind’ – is highly acclaimed by audiences and critics all over Europe, and is the fruit of its lithe and gracious playing combined with an extraordinarily committed ensemble mentality.  An acclaimed and growing discography includes recordings of music by Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Mendelssohn.

The Chiaroscuro Quartet was a prize-winner of the German Förderpreis Deutschlandfunk/Musikfest Bremen in 2013 and received Germany’s most prestigious CD award, the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik in 2015 for its latest recording of Mozart’s quartet in d-minor K421 and Mendelssohn’s 2nd string quartet in a-minor opus 13.

Among the ensemble’s chamber music partners are renowned artists such as Kristian Bezuidenhout, Nicolas Baldeyrou, Chen Halevi, Trevor Pinnock, Malcolm Bilson and Christophe Coin.

Recent engagements included their enthusiastically received debut concert at Vienna Konzerthaus and Philharmonie Warsaw. Other highlights in the past took the ensemble to the Edinburgh International Festival, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, London’s Wigmore Hall, Auditorio Nacional de Música Madrid, Music Festival Grafenegg, The Sage Gateshead (recorded for BBC Radio 3), Auditorium du Louvre Paris, Théâtre du Jeu-de-Paume in Aix-en-Provence, Grand Théâtre de Dijon, Gulbenkian Foundation Lisbon, West Cork Festival and for a residency to Aldeburgh.

In the season 2015/2016, the Chiaroscuro Quartet will appear on stage at Gulbenkian Foundation Lisbon, Amsterdam Concertgebouw or Sendesaal Bremen amongst others. The ensemble will also continue to perform Mozart's masterworks for piano and string quartet together with Kristian Bezuidenhout in leading concert halls such as Laeiszhalle Hamburg, Palau de la Música Barcelona, BR Munich, Meisterkonzerte Dresden, Kartause Ittingen and Bern. In April 2016 the quartet will embark on its first concert tour to Japan playing concerts in Tokyo and Hyogo.

Since 2009, the Chiaroscuro Quartet has been artist-in-residence in Port-Royal-des-Champs giving a concert series dedicated to Mozart’s string quartets.