Debut-CD: a scary but exciting term for any artist. What do we pick, what represents us, who are we? Our journey with Beethoven began unusually, at the start of 2021, when we somehow became more and more fascinated with Große Fuge op. 133, eventually ending up producing a recording and music video of this late work. After the great success of the Fuge, we decided to go back to the very first of Beethoven’s 16 quartets – to op.18 no.1. A fundamentally different piece, we became just as fond of discovering the earliest of the composer’s quartets, but for very different reasons – just as we were discovering ourselves as a group, Beethoven was discovering his own voice as a quartet composer. After working personally with the composer Jörg Widmann on his own first quartet, who spoke of the “burden of writing a quartet after all the greats – Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert,” it quickly became apparent to us that with the idea of embarking upon the “first” of any project, every artist is forced to recognise the enormity of the task ahead of them. It was therefore surprisingly easy to then pick the third and last piece for our CD: Brahms’ 2nd string quartet – one of the very first pieces which we played together, and a work which has since established itself as a firm favourite within the group.
Ultimately, this collection of “firsts” seemed to resonate with us the most – after all, isn’t it better to share the burden of a debut, than to shoulder it alone?
Malion Quartet
If you would like to purchase a CD, please send an e-mail to: info@malionquartett.com
Price: 20 Euro,
plus shipping cost
We are honored to have taken home a special prize from the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition: “Ambassador Ensemble of the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition 2023.” As the prize recipients, we will perform at the String Quartet Biennale 2024 of the VdSQ in Munich.
Our first trip to Japan as a quartet was an enriching one, where we had the opportunity to perform on the world-class stage of Izumi Hall, meet inspiring artists from around the world, and take a glimpse into a fascinating culture. We are very grateful to the Japan Chamber Music Foundation for giving us this opportunity and were immensely inspired by their show of commitment to chamber music.
