Bennewitz Quartet
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Full Biography
Jakub Fišer | Violin
Štěpán Ježek | Violin
Jiří Pinkas | Viola
Štěpán Doležal | Cello

Some chamber music ensembles present such a beautiful and harmonious overall image on the stage that they are a pure joy to watch, their body language reflecting their intensive musical cooperation.
The Czech Bennewitz Quartet (named after the renowned Czech violinist Antonin Bennewitz (1833-1926) is one such ensemble.
For the musicians of the Quartet, who first came together in 1998 at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, the idea of homogeneity plays an important role: “For us, playing in a quartet means communication, which in practical terms presents us with the challenge of combining our various points of view in order to gain an original result. Our intention is to create music using many colourful and sonic changes to keep it ever lively and fresh.”

The Bennewitz Quartet's intentions have been vividly demonstrated in works by Bartók and Janácek on a CD that was released in 2008 by Coviello Classics where the widely diversified palette of colours in the works is illuminated down to its finest nuances. The magazine Fono Forum agreed that the recording has a “fiery temperament” and concludes, “The young performers have already demonstrated an astonishingly mature and confidently balanced ensemble.” The quartet’s second CD of both string quartets by Smetana was released in spring 2010. A year later Supraphon released the CD Clarinet Quintets which the quartet recorded together with clarinettist Ludmila Peterková. In 2012/2013 a double CD with the Cypresses (Songs & String Quartets) of Dvořák was released by Hänssler Classic. The second recording on the Hänssler Classic label, featuring Dvořák’s string quartets op. 51 and op. 106, will be realized this season.

A significant part of the development of the quartet came through working with two highly regarded musicians when they studied in Madrid with Rainer Schmidt of the Hagen Quartet from 2002–2004 and subsequently by the great teacher Walter Levin of the former La Salle Quartet at the Basel Music Academy – where the Bennewitz Quartet fulfilled an additional role as the Quartet in Residence.

Even in their student years, the ensemble was already a recipient of numerous awards. These included the laureate of the Chamber Music Society of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra; the diploma of the Queen of Spain for the best chamber music ensemble in 2002/2003; two special prizes in the 2004 ARD Music Competition, followed one year later by the first prize at the International Chamber Music Competition in Osaka. In 2008, its tenth anniversary, the Bennewitz Quartet won the first prize at the highly acclaimed Borciani Competition in Italy.

In the 2014/2015 season, the quartet will be performing at such venues as the Wigmore Hall in London and the Conservatory Bern. The quartet has also been invited to participate at festivals including the Beethovenfest Bonn, Menuhin Festival Gstaad and Dvořák Prague International Festival.

The quartet has an impressively distinctive sound, demonstrating great qualities of balance, richness and variety, a sound which is demonstrated by their remarkable and impressively diversified repertoire, ranging from Bach to Webern to Janáček to Schnittke. They also champion new Czech composers such as Olga Ježková and Slavomír Hořinka who are as yet to find a place on the repertoire lists of other quartets.

The Bennewitz Quartet is supported by the Viennese string-producer Thomastik-Infeld.

2014/2015
If you wish to revise this biography please contact Mark Stephan Buhl Artists Management (office@msbuhl.com). Please use material of the current season only.