Stir Cheat Sheet: 5 things to know about Germany's Goldmund Quartet ahead of its Vancouver debut

In a Friends of Chamber Music concert, the four musicians will play works by Haydn, Borodin, and Beethoven

By Emily Lyth

Goldmund Quartet. Photo by Gregor Hohenberg

Friends of Chamber Music present the Goldmund Quartet at the Vancouver Playhouse on January 30 at 7:30 pm

THE GOLDMUND QUARTET is a standout in the international musical landscape—a leading string quartet of the new generation. Vancouver audiences are in luck, as the group is making its debut in the city this month with a Friends of Chamber Music concert at the Vancouver Playhouse.

Based in Munich, Germany, the Goldmund Quartet was founded in 2009 by violinists Florian Schötz and Pinchas Adt, violist Christoph Vandory, and cellist Raphael Paratore. The four musicians have been playing together since their teenage years. Now, more than a decade later, they have graced venues among the likes of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Philharmonie de Paris, and Festspielhaus Baden-Baden.

The quartet’s Friends of Chamber Music lineup spans Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet in D Minor, No. 2, “Quinten”, Alexander Borodin’s String Quartet No. 2 in D Major, and Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 7, No. 1, “Razumovsky”.

As the show approaches, here are five things to know about the Goldmund Quartet.

Stradivari’s Paganini Quartet. Photo courtesy of Nippon Music Foundation

#1

All the quartet members perform on Stradivari instruments

Italian violin maker Antonio Stradivari, who was active throughout the late 1600s and early 1700s, is widely considered among the greats of his craft. Though he produced more than 1,100 instruments over his lifetime, there are only six complete quartet sets compiled from Stradivari instruments that remain today, making them extremely rare. One of those sets has been in the hands of the Goldmund Quartet since 2019, on loan from Japan’s Nippon Music Foundation.

Called the Paganini Quartet, the four Stradivari instruments were once owned by 19th-century Italian violin virtuoso Niccolò Paganini, whose quartet played them during the 1830s. Today, Adt plays the “Conte Cozio di Salabue” first violin, made in 1727; Schötz is on second violin, 1680’s “Desaint”; Vandory plays the 1731 viola “Mendelssohn”, one of only 12 known Stradivari violas remaining today; and Paratore plays the 1736 cello “Ladenburg”, which is among the last instruments Stradivari made before his death in 1737.

#2

The group’s latest recording is a Schubert tribute album

The Goldmund Quartet’s 2023 recording Schubert: Der Tod und das Mädchen & Songs is a rendition of 19th-century Austrian composer Franz Schubert’s masterwork String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, “Death and the Maiden”. Schubert lived a short life—he died of typhoid fever in 1828 at just 31 years old. He wrote “Death and the Maiden” four years prior to his passing, while bogged down by a venereal disease he had recently contracted (likely syphilis). It’s a sombre piece characterized by unparalleled lyricism and drama.

String Quartet No. 14 in D minor is central to the Goldmund Quartet’s repertoire; it is among the first works the four musicians performed at the start of their careers. The Berlin Classics release featuring arrangements by Jakob Encke presents the piece in its entirety, along with a selection of other Schubert compositions.

Goldmund Quartet.

#3

In 2020, the quartet received a German chamber-music prize with a 60,000-euro grant

Awarded every two years to a professional young German ensemble, the Jürgen Ponto Foundation’s chamber-music prize comes with a grant of 60,000 euros, which is equal to over $87,000 Canadian. The Goldmund Quartet received the prestigious award in 2020. On top of the cash prize, the honour also provides the winning group with invitations to perform at four highly regarded German music festivals: Beethovenfest Bonn, Heidelberger Frühling, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, and Kissinger Sommer. Past prize-winners include the Schumann Quartet in 2014, which made its Vancouver debut in 2020 at the Vancouver Playhouse, and most recently the Leonkoro Quartet in 2022.

Christoph Vandory.

#4

Violist Vandory is also a trained conductor

Though he hasn’t traded in his strings for a baton full-time, Vandory doubles as a conductor outside his role as a violist with the Goldmund Quartet. He is a graduate of the conducting program at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich, and of the Järvi Academy intensive in Pärnu, Estonia. Thus far, his orchestral conducting credits throughout Germany span the Munich Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonic Orchestra of South Westphalia, and Jena Philharmonic Orchestra.

Goldmund Quartet.

#5

Vancouver is the last stop on the quartet’s North American tour

The four musicians kicked off 2024 with a 12-concert tour through the U.S. that features just one Canadian stop—Vancouver. They launched the series on January 12 in Washington, D.C., with a sold-out show at the Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building. They’ll hit three more cities—Salt Lake City, Utah; Ashland, Oregon; and Portland, Oregon—before reaching Vancouver.  

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