Biography

Jonathan Schwarz  -  violin             
Amelie Wallner  -  violin 
Mayu Konoe  -  viola        
Lukas Schwarz  -  cello

The Leonkoro Quartet, founded in Berlin in 2019, takes its name from the Esperanto words meaning “lion” and “heart,” and from a children’s book by Astrid Lindgren about two brothers (the Leonkoro’s first violinist and cellist are brothers). The Quartet came to international attention in mid-2021 when, as the youngest ensemble participating, it won second prize (no first prize was offered that year) and the Audience Prize at the renowned Premio Paolo Borciani International String Quartet Competition. In 2022, barely three years after it was founded, the Quartet won a whole host of prizes and awards, one after the other. Starting in March, it received the Jürgen Ponto Foundation Music Prize. Next month, the ensemble collected not only first prize but nine additional special prizes at the prestigious Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition, where it was again the youngest quartet competing. In May it won the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition as well as the Audience Prize. In November the Quartet received the MERITO Award. Also that year the Leonkoro Quartet was invited to join the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists program for a two-year period. As if all this weren’t enough to distinguish this young group, all but the cellist perform standing. Notable mentors include members of the Artemis Quartet, Günter Pichler of the Alban Berg Quartet, and pianist Alfred Brendel with whom the Quartet maintains a regular collaboration. LMMC debut.

https://leonkoroquartet.com/en/

Notes

Out of nearly 80 string quartets by Haydn, the listener is bound to encounter from time to time one of the less commonly heard quartets, and what we hear this afternoon, despite its catchy nickname (“The Dream”) is such an example. Nevertheless, it has its share of attractive Haydnesque qualities, including a jaunty, outdoorsy first movement; a dreamy second; a third that keeps the listener in suspense of its tonality, and a rambunctious finale.

Berg’s Lyric Suite (1925-1926) hides an autobiographical account of an illicit affair. Berg  and his wife Helene maintained the facade of a happy married life, but in fact, they were quite estranged from each another. In 1925, when the composer was forty, he began a clandestine relationship with Hanna Werfel Fuchs-Robettin. The affair continued until Berg died, more than ten years later. As Berg could not express the intensity of his feelings for Hanna publicly, he poured into his Lyric Suite all the passion and intense longing he felt for her. The score contains a complete program, with annotations on nearly every page. Even the titles of the movements suggest a drama: a jovial allegro, an amorous adagio, a mysterious allegro, etc. Biographer Karen Monson writes that “the intense lyricism of the music engages the listener on a level that has nothing to do with counting and ordering pitches; …To many, it was the Lyric Suite that proved that there was nothing to fear in music written with the aid of twelve-tone rows.”

While writing his string quartet Op. 132 in 1825, Beethoven became seriously ill with painful and debilitating bowel disorders. When he finally recovered, he revised the overall plan of the quartet to include a long, slow central movement of exalted and sublime character (Heiliger Dankgesang). Twice this hymnlike music is interrupted by more energetic episodes that Beethoven indicated should convey a feeling of renewed strength. Flanking this long, central movement are shorter ones on each side. The haunting first movement is followed by what annotator Emil Platen describes as “on the one hand a web of fleeting visions in a feverish dream, [and] … on the other as a skillfully planned contrapuntal study.” Beethoven brings us down from the rarefied air and mystic realm of the Heiliger Dankgesang with a bouncy two-minute march, which leads without pause into the final movement, a rondo that richly deserves its performance direction of Allegro appassionato, driving forward relentlessly, seething with tension and turbulence.

Robert Markow