Mandelring Quartet plays Beethoven, Shostakovich, and Ligeti in Friends of Chamber Music concert, October 29
Now in their 40th-anniversary year, critically acclaimed group returns to Vancouver for the first time since 2016
Friends of Chamber Music present the Mandelring Quartet on October 29 at 3 pm at the Vancouver Playhouse
GERMANY’S CRITICALLY acclaimed Mandelring Quartet is marking its 40th-anniversary year with concerts around the world. As luck would have it for local audiences, the group is returning to Vancouver in a Friends of Chamber Music show for the first time since 2016.
Violinists Sebastian Schmidt and Nanette Schmidt, violist Andreas Willwohl, and cellist Bernhard Schmidt craft a complex sound that has won them numerous prestigious competitions, including Germany’s ARD International Music Competition and Italy’s Premio Paolo Borciani.
In 1997, the group founded the annual Hambacher MusikFest, a beacon for chamber music in their hometown of Neustadt an der Weinstrasse.
The Mandelring Quartet have performed in Madrid’s Spanish Royal Palace four times, most recently this spring—the 18th-century Baroque architecture-style building, spanning 1.5 million square feet with over 1,400 rooms, is notably the largest royal palace in Europe. The group played using the royal collection of Stradivari instruments, crafted by Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari from in the late 1600s and early 1700s and praised for their high-caliber sound.
Several CD recordings have been released by the quartet, earning them the German Record Critics’ Prize and nominations for the International Classical Music Awards. Their most recent release, 2021’s Debussy & Rivier string quartets, pairs the works of two French composers—one a well-known classic, the other a passionately varied hidden gem.
The quartet is set to play three stunning string works at the Vancouver Playhouse: Dmitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 1 in C Major, Opus 49, Hungarian-Austrian composer György Ligeti’s “Métamorphoses Nocturnes”, and Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 15 in A Minor, Opus 132.
Late Beethoven quartets are quintessential to any Friends of Chamber Music season, and Mandelring will deliver just that.
Emily Lyth is a Vancouver-based writer and editor who graduated from Langara College’s Journalism program. Her decade of dance training and passion for all things food-related are the foundation of her love for telling arts, culture, and community stories.
Related Articles
Free open house at VIVO Media Arts Centre features live performances by Matthew Ariaratnam, Andromeda Monk, Sapphire Haze, and Anju Singh
Festival co-curated with The Cultch’s Heather Redfern features the workshop premiere of Payette’s musical On Native Land, plus a new choral composition
Performing alongside pakhavaj artist Tejas Tope, Dagar explores the virtuosity of dhrupad, India’s oldest-surviving classical style
White rabbits and Magritte clouds, as Visions Ouest presents film of Orchestre symphonique de Montréal’s epic and affecting multimedia performance
Castalian String Quartet, violist Timothy Ridout, cellist Zlatomir Fung, and pianists Angela Cheng and Benjamin Hochman will perform two concerts in one day at the Vancouver Playhouse
Innovative show created by Rodney DeCroo, Samantha Pawliuk, and David Bloom melds music, theatre, and poetry inside a giant fish
The a cappella work by Joby Talbot is meant to be seen and heard
Conductor-composer to lead Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in Canadian premiere of his sweeping mix of Western and Asian traditions, November 8 and 9
Renowned countertenor and Renaissance viol consort play a German Baroque programme based on the latter group’s Signum Classics album
Shawn Kirchner’s exhilarating folk oratorio blends familiar and new carols in an immersive multidisciplinary exploration of winter mysteries
Surrealism is a major influence on the Belgian big band coming to Vancouver courtesy Music on Main
Adaptation of Strauss’s beloved operetta opens Vancouver Opera’s 65th season with cheeky adapted dialogue and musical delights
Vancouver-raised, New York-based artist’s 2022 recording of the works was praised by Glass himself as “a highly dynamic and expressive performance”
Friends of Chamber Music concert features well-loved works by Ravel and Beethoven, alongside a contemporary piece by Israeli composer Matan Porat
Group melds folk traditions, klezmer music, and urban energy into a unique style as it raises money for Ukraine’s humanitarian and military efforts
The artist’s quintet comes to the Ironworks on November 2, as part of the Coastal Jazz and Blues Society’s IronFest V weekend
Appearing at the Kay Meek Arts Centre, Vancouver Island pair fuels its blues and folk with curiosity and joie de vivre
Show written and hosted by Patricia Ward Kelly features scenes from the American icon’s most beloved films set to a live symphony
Representation is at the core of the artist’s new cabaret-style show
Juno Award-winning group weaves doo-wop, R&B, country, and blues with themes of social justice and human dignity
The 65th-season opener features a witty new script by Mark Crawford and a Sweet Charity-worthy array of colourful retro costumes
In this classic of German expressionism screening at the Shadbolt, “Every frame is like an album cover,” says the postrock band’s Simon Dobbs
The trio leader has fully integrated Latin and Caribbean sounds into his approach
Concert program Rest includes two new choral arrangements of the artist’s songs among other diverse works
Evening featuring Fauré’s Requiem and Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms offered moments of stunning beauty and clashing dissonance
Award-winning artist’s piece inspired by Chinese and Sanskrit texts tells of six stories from the life of the Buddha, and of a prince’s path to enlightenment
Featured works include “The Raven Conspiracy” by Yellowknife’s Carmen Braden and “Seasons of the Sea” by Rosemary Georgeson and Jeffrey Ryan
The pandemic sent Italian lute virtuoso Michele Pasotti looking back at the poets of the Black Plague—and the way Ars Nova music provided relief
Magical stage adaptation of graphic novel features over 20 miniature sets performed, filmed, and projected in real time to a live score
Soprano Caitlin Wood, tenor Caulin Moore among the standouts in a production that shows the power of songs in musicals from Evita to Sunset Boulevard