The Mandelring Quartet of Germany, one of the finest string quartets of our time, will perform at the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Little Theater on September 27, 2017 at 7:30 pm. The concert is presented by Goethe Institut Manila, the CCP, and Makati Diamond Residences.
The Mandelring Quartet “is undoubtedly a world leader in its field. Their unsurpassable virtuosity and flawless intonation are sheer technical perfection. What impresses most of all…is their perfect unity in the crafting of structure and interpretation of emotional content” (Der Tagesspiegel, Christian Schmidt, 17 January 2014).
The Schmidt siblings–violinists Sebastian and Nanette and cellist Bernhard–form the heart of the ensemble. The fourth player is violist Andreas Willwohl who joined the ensemble in 2016.
Established in 1988, the Mandelring Quartet is based in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse, Germany, the hometown of thethree Schmidt siblings. In fact, the group takes its name from the street on which they lived.
Although the Mandelring Quartet began concertizing and recording in the late 1980s, its breakthrough came in 1991, when it won the international string quartet competitions in Munich and Evian. The Mandelring Quartet’s success in winning some great competitions – in Munich (ARD), Evian and Reggio Emilia (Premio Paolo Borciani) –launched their international career.
Today, their performing commitments take them to international musical capitals such as Vienna, Paris, London, Madrid, New York, Los Angeles and Vancouver. In addition, their concert diary includes regular tours to Central and South America, the Near East and Asia. They are also welcomed guests at leading festivals including the Schwarzenberg Schubertiade and those at Schleswig-Holstein, Rheingau, Lockenhaus and Montpellier.
For their Manila concert, the Mandelring will play Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “String Quartet in C major, K 465,” (“Dissonance”), Antonin Dvorak’s “String Quartet No. 12 in F major, Op. 96 (“American”) and Filipino composer Jeffrey Ching’s “Quartet-Dissonances”.
Jeffrey Ching is the composer of the acclaimed opera Das Waisenkind (The Orphan) which was awarded the Theater Erfurt Audience Prize (Zuschauerpreis) for the best opera production of 2009-2010. In November 2013, the two halves of his ‘incantation’ Diese So-Geliebte were played separately in Dessau and Magdeburg and simultaneously broadcast live by DeutschlandradioKultur and MDR Figaro, a unique technological tour de force enabling concert and radio listeners to hear both halves as a complete score. His compositions have been featured in radio portraits on Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (rbb) and Deutschlandfunk (DLF), and in Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. His completion of Mozart’s unfinished Sinfonia Concertante in A major for violin, viola, and cello will be premiered by the Staatskapelle Dresden, one of the world’s finest orchestras, in September 2017.
For inquiries and tickets, call the CCP Box Office at 832-3704 or TicketWorld at 891-9999.
