The Artemis Quartet is a German string quartet, founded in 1989 in

Lübeck Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the state ...

, and now based in Berlin. The quartet is named for the Greek goddess of hunting and the wilderness.

History

The first members of the Artemis Quartet, Wilken Ranck, Isabel Trautwein, Volker Jacobsen, and Eckart Runge, met as students in Lübeck. Heime Müller replaced Isabel Trautwein in 1991. For personal and health reasons, Wilken Ranck left the quartet in 1994, and Volker Jacobsen and Heime Müller left at the end of the 2006/07 season. Natalia Prishepenko, the subsequent first violinist of the quartet, resigned after 18 years of membership in the ensemble in 2012. Newer members were Gregor Sigl (2nd violin), the violist Friedemann Weigle (until his death in July 2015) and the Latvian violinist Vineta Sareika (1st violin). In 2016, Anthea Kreston joined as the group's new second violinist and toured with the quartet until 2019. In April 2019, violinist Suyoen Kim and cellist Harriet Krijgh joined the ensemble. In May 2021, the quartet announced a hiatus in its activities, with the intention to regroup in the future. The recordings of the ensemble were awarded several prizes, recently including the

ECHO Klassik The Echo Klassik, often stylized as ECHO Klassik, was Germany's major classical music award in 22 categories. The award, presented by the , was held annually, usually in October or September, separate from its parent award, the Echo Music Prize. Th ...

2006 for their recording of the Beethoven Quartets Op. 95 and 59/1. The quartet was awarded the German Critics' Prize 2001, and the Würth Prize of Jeunesses Musicales Germany 2007. In 2015 the quartet was again awarded the ECHO Klassik in the category of chamber music recording of the year.

Discography

The Artemis Quartet has had an exclusive recording contract with Virgin Classics/EMI since 2005. Their discography includes *

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...

: String Quartets Opp. 59 & 95 (2005) * Ligeti: String Quartet Nos 1 & 2 (2005) *''

Verklärte Nacht ''Verklärte Nacht'' (''Transfigured Night''), Op. 4, is a string sextet in one movement composed by Arnold Schoenberg in 1899. Composed in just three weeks, it is considered his earliest important work. It was inspired by Richard Dehmel's p ...

'' (2006) * Dvořák, Janáček: String Quartets (2006) *

Schumann Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career a ...

Brahms Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped with ...

: Piano Quintets with

Leif Ove Andsnes Leif Ove Andsnes (; born 7 April 1970) is a Norwegian pianist and chamber musician. Andsnes has made several recordings for Virgin and EMI. In 2012, Leif Ove Andsnes has signed to Sony Classical, and recorded for the label the "Beethoven Journe ...

(2006) *

Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...

: String Quintet in C & String Quartet No. 703 with

Truls Mørk Truls Olaf Otterbech Mørk (born 25 April 1961) is a Norwegian cellist. Biography Mørk was born in Bergen, Norway to a cellist father, John Fritjof Mørk, and a pianist mother, Turid Otterbech. His mother began teaching him the piano when he w ...

(2007)"Benchmark recordings of Schubert masterpieces." ''Stradivarius'' September 2012;123(1469):105
Academic Search Premier
Accessed 10 July 2014. *Beethoven: String Quartets Op. 18 No. 4 & Op. 59 No. 2 (2008) *Beethoven: String Quartets Op. 130 No. 133 & Op. 18 No. 6 (2010) *Beethoven: String Quartets Op. 18 No. 1 & Op. 127 (2010) *Beethoven: String Quartets Op. 18 No. 5, Op. 18 No. 3, Op. 135 (2011) *Beethoven: Complete String Quartets (2011) *Schubert: String Quartets No. 13-15: Rosamunde, Death and the Maiden, String Quartet No. 15 (2012)

Members

* 1st

Violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

: Wilken Ranck (1989–1994), Natalia Prishepenko (1994–2012), Vineta Sareika (2012–present) * 2nd Violin: Isabel Trautwein (1989–1991), Heime Müller (1991–2007), Gregor Sigl (2007–2016), Anthea Kreston (2016–2019), Suyoen Kim (2019–present) *

Viola ; german: Bratsche , alt=Viola shown from the front and the side , image=Bratsche.jpg , caption= , background=string , hornbostel_sachs=321.322-71 , hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded by a bow , range= , related= *Violin family ...

: Volker Jacobsen (1989–2007), Friedemann Weigle (2007–2015), Gregor Sigl (2016-present) *

Violoncello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G2, D ...

: Eckart Runge (1989–2019), Harriet Krijgh (2019-present)

References

External links

* {{authority control German string quartets Erato Records artists Musical groups established in 1989