Biography
Passion, combined with precision, expressiveness, and emotion, characterize the concerts of the Belcea Quartet. With Romanian violinist Corina Belcea, Korean-Australian second violinist Suyeon Kang, Polish violist Krzysztof Chorzelski, and French cellist Antoine Lederlin, four different artistic backgrounds come together to create excellence.
Their repertoire spans from Mozart, Beethoven, and Bartók to Janáček and Szymanowski, and they always present works by contemporary composers such as Guillaume Connesson (2023), Joseph Phibbs (2018), Krzysztof Penderecki (2016), Thomas Larcher (2015), and Mark-Anthony Turnage (2014 and 2010). This season, the ensemble will present a work by Julian Anderson. These commissioned works are created in cooperation with the Belcea Quartet Trust, the quartet’s foundation, which aims to continually expand the string quartet repertoire while supporting young quartets through collaborative efforts. In this way, they can also pass on to the next generation the experiences they gained as students of the Amadeus and Alban Berg Quartets.
In addition to complete recordings of the string quartets of Bartók, Beethoven, Brahms (Diapason d’Or 2016), and Britten, the quartet boasts an extensive discography with recordings of works by Berg, Dutilleux, Mozart, Schoenberg, Schubert, Shostakovich, Janáček, and Ligeti. In spring 2022, Alpha Classics released the two string sextets by Brahms featuring Tabea Zimmermann and Jean-Guihen Queyras. In 2014, EuroArts released the interpretations of Beethoven’s string quartets from the Konzerthaus Vienna on DVD, followed a year later by the recording of Britten’s three string quartets.
From 2017 to 2020, the quartet held the prestigious position of Ensemble in Residence at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin. Since then, they have performed there regularly. The Belcea Quartet has been part of a series of string quartets at the Konzerthaus Vienna since 2010. Since last season, the Ébène Quartet has been their partner in this series.
This season, the Belcea Quartet will be a guest at the three major European biennials for string quartets in Paris, Lisbon, and Amsterdam and will perform at Carnegie Hall in New York, Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Flagey in Brussels, National Concert Hall in Dublin, Tonhalle in Zurich, and Toppan Hall in Tokyo
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