Projects

What is a string quartet and how does it work?

Whether you are a passionate string quartet listener or a first-time audience member of a classical music concert, with ON/OFFstage, the Malion Quartet presents an exclusive chance to peek behind the curtain and experience firsthand how a string quartet creates its magic. With Claude Debussy’s String Quartet in g-minor as the centrepiece of the evening, the quartet will dive into the musical score, take it apart and put it under a microscope, look at the music from different angles, and reveal what a rehearsal of the Malion Quartet might look like. The evening will be filmed live, with acclaimed director and close friend of the quartet Andreas Kessler behind the camera and will finish with a concert performance of the entire string quartet.

A film by Andreas Kessler

The sun motionless, as the earth revolves around it. With what forces could one associate or even compare the radical uncompromising thought processes of Beethoven in his late work, the “Grand Fugue” op.133?

Since the advent of our ensemble, finding new and innovative ways of conveying music to our audience has sparked our continued creative curiosity. The question of ‘Music through the Internet – is it even possible?’ has been a topic of intense discussion within our ensemble. Is it possible to touch people and create emotionally rich experiences through the medium of technology? Could we create a new reality?

The intention of this project was not to present a conventional concert, whether it be pre- or during-pandemic, but rather to understand media as a new reality and to research and determine its parameters, creating the greatest possible intensity of experience, despite the distance created by a screen.

In order to make a piece of music understandable in a unique way, we began by searching for experiences that are universally comprehensible. In conversation with the director, Andreas Kessler, it became clear that light, in particular sunlight, could be this associative force, as the physical and sensual effect of the sun is something which every human being can identify with.

On the island of Krk in Croatia, different phases of light and darkness can be experienced or captured particularly well. Centred around a stationary quartet, the passage of time and the transformation of light portrays the continued evolution of music; only at the brightest point does the camera capture the faces of the players; music and luminescent energy face each other eye to eye. Musically, we have now reached the most powerful climax of the fugue, after which the light breaks, shadows become longer, the day fades, the moon rises, music and players disappear into the darkness.

Want to learn more? Radio presenter Marie König talked about the experience of shooting a music video in an interview with director Andreas Kessler and the Malion Quartet.

Marie König:

I would like to start with a little quote from Theodor Adorno:

“In the history of art, late works are the catastrophes”. Adorno was of the opinion that late works by composers are usually no good, and this was also true of this opus.
As Bettina said in the greeting: at the premiere, Beethoven’s contemporaries and many people in the decades thereafter also found this work too rough and too complex. It is not easy to follow this music and it can easily overwhelm you, but then there are also moments that are so gentle and tender and beautiful that you just have to love them…

Read the full interview (german)

This year we had the privilege of hosting the first edition of the Malion Music Festival. Rather than presenting a full programme of three pieces every evening, each of the five concerts of this series focused on a single work of the string quartet literature. The first half of the evening was spent collectively discovering and getting to know the composer and their work. In the second half, the respective work was then performed in its entirety.

Want to learn more? Read a review of the festival by a regular audience member…

On February 8th, 2022 at 7:30 pm it was finally time: the portal to the Orangerie in Günthersburgpark in Frankfurt was opened and the first edition of the Malion Music Festival could begin. With a total of five concerts within one week, the four young musicians pursued a completely new concept. Unlike the usual concert format, only one piece for string quartet was the focus of each evening…

PDF: Programmheft

CD

Debut-CD – an exciting, but also somewhat frightening term for any musician.

What do we choose, what represents us, who are we?

DVD

One project of the Malion Quartet.

The sun stands still. The earth revolves around the sun. With what forces could one associate or even compare the radical, uncompromising thought processes of Beethoven in his late work, the “Grand Fugue” op.133?

Bag

Carry Beethoven’s spirit into the world…

On the occasion of the Beethoven Year 2020, we commissioned British-Ukrainian designer Yosef Tyminsky to portray Beethoven in a single line, that is, without lifting the pen once.