Fauré Quartett

Germany's Fauré Quartett, a rare example of a piano quartet with fixed membership, is among Europe's leading chamber music ensembles. The group has expanded the piano quartet repertory with commissions and arrangements of various kinds.

The Fauré Quartett (or Quartet) was formed in 1995, in observance of the sesquicentennial of the birth of its namesake. The members since the group's beginning have been violinist Erika Geldsetzer, violist Sascha Frömbling, cellist Konstantin Heidrich, and pianist Dirk Mommertz. The members were all students at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe and remained together as a unit and moved on to the Musikhochschule Köln. One of comparatively few piano quartets whose membership is fixed and ongoing (many piano quartets are played by expanded piano trios or by the addition of a piano to three of the members of a string quartet), the Fauré Quartett found ready engagements as performers and educators. The group's career was propelled by several major prizes, including first-place showings at the Deutscher Musikwettbewerb in 1999 and the Trio di Trieste and Vittorio Gui competitions in Italy in 2000. In 2004, the Fauré Quartett became quartet-in-residence at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe. The quartet has performed in major European capitals and has appeared at festivals around Germany and beyond. The Fauré Quartett established the Rügen Festival on the German Baltic Sea island of Rügen and directed it for several years. The group has performed new music by <a href="spotify:artist:07qMnUOUaZr6mRZitsANgW">Alexandre Tansman</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:39U9jNsj9qQDayipzNhKlA">Volker David Kirchner</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:7CVjE65ZnFdMQL7RzK7Nnt">Toshio Hosokawa</a>; it has also published and frequently performed a volume of popular song arrangements for piano quartet, compiled under the title Popsongs.

The Fauré Quartett began its recording career in 2005 with an album of works by Schumann and Kirchner on the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Ars+Musici%22">Ars Musici</a> label. Two years later, the group moved to <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Deutsche+Grammophon%22">Deutsche Grammophon</a>, releasing an album of Brahms piano quartets (which won Germany's prestigious ECHO Klassik award) and appearing on the <a href="spotify:artist:2PfBzriIMRsCXPDtSy9vg8">Rufus Wainwright</a> album Yellow Lounge. The quartet devoted an album to the Popsongs in 2009. The Fauré Quartett has also recorded for <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Sony+Classical%22">Sony Classical</a> and <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Berlin+Classics%22">Berlin Classics</a>, releasing an album devoted to Gabriel Fauré's piano quartets on the latter label in 2020. In demand as educators, the group members have had ongoing teaching assignments at the Universitäte der Künste Berlin and the Hochschule fur Musik und Darstellende Kunst München.