Quick Summary
• We welcome back the only active six-time Gramophone Award-winning string quartet, including Recording of the Year.
• In recent years, the PHQ has appeared on our series more than any other string Quartet.
• Like the Kronos Quartet, the BBC Music Magazine, the industry’s largest, rates the Pavel Haas “one of the ten greatest string quartet ensembles of all time.” Only five of the ten remain active.
• “If you haven’t heard the Pavel Haas Quartet, buckle your seat belts.” – NPR
• With the appearance of the Ebene Quartet closing CMC’s current season in April, subscribers will have heard all five of the active BBC “Top Ten” since the COVID shutdown, three within 12 months.
• Repertoire: TBA
• Bottom line: Hear why Gramophone asks “Is this the world’s most exciting string quartet.”

Deeper Dive

Based in Prague, the Pavel Haas Quartet was formed in 2002 and won its first Gramophone Award in 2007. They then won five more in the next ten years, including Recording of the Year, the most for any active quartet. The quartet is named for Czech composer Pavel Haas (1889-1945), who died in Auschwitz at age 45. The PHQ has championed his work, and The Strad describes their Dvorak interpretations as “nothing short of compelling.”

In keeping with its stature, the quartet appears at major venues including Wigmore Hall, London; Philharmonie and Konzerthaus, Berlin; Musikverein, Vienna; Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg; Concertgebouw and Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam; Tonhalle, Zürich; Théâtre de la Ville, Paris; Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome;  NCPA, Beijing; LG Arts Centre, Seoul and Carnegie Hall, New York. While Gramophone asks, “The greatest string quartet ever?” the Times (London) removes the question mark.

Repertoire

Pavel Haas: String Quartet No.3, Op.15 (1938) 22:00

Leos Janáček: String Quartet No.1, “Kreutzer Sonata” (1923) 18:00

intermission

Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartet No.16 in F Major, Op.135 (1826) 25:00

CMC Subscriptions: Chamber Music’s Greatest Value

• Our “Early Bird” subscriptions for these six concerts are on sale today on our web site and through the Memorial Hall box office. Only you who are receiving this email know about it, giving you first choice of open seats.
• All available seats will be opened to the general public for subscription purchases on Tuesday, February 24.

• Currents subscribers’ seats will be held until June 1, then released to the general public. The six concert price ― $120 in the Orchestra or Balcony ― is one of the nation’s great chamber music bargains. It’s up to 50% off the single ticket price helping to make our concerts more affordable to everyone.

Please remember this affordability pricing in your giving. Only if you do can we maintain pricing at this level.

We hope you are as excited about next season as we are. This may well be our strongest season ever, so we expect subscriptions to sell fast. Single tickets for remaining seats will go on sale June 1.

Quick Summary
• With Germany’s Leonkoro, CMC subscribers will have heard the winners of both the leading North American and British string quartet competitions in less than six months. (The Isidore String Quartet is the other.)
• The Leonkoro won London’s International String Quartet Competition in 2022, the same year that the Isidore won Banff.
• The Guardian wrote earlier this month that “the Leonkoros are surely stars in the making.”
• Also this month, The New York Times says of their Berg Lyric Suite recording to be released on March 20: “The Leonkoro’s account is as compelling as any.”
• Bottom Line: In its Leonkoro cover story, The Strad describes them as “at the forefront of a new wave of brilliant young string quartets.”

Deeper Dive

In 2006, a Gramophone article was headlined, “the most exciting era ever for string quartets.” In February 2010, it said, “it is clear that some of the new generation of string quartets, who were only then beginning to emerge, have pulled ahead of their rivals.” With the rise of the Leonkoro and the Isidore, among others, any day Gramophone may repeat itself.

In 2023, just a year after Leonkoro won the Wigmore Hall International Hall String Quartet competition, it was already describing them as “at the forefront of a new wave of brilliant young string quartets.” In 2021, Leonkoro had already won second place at Italy’s Premio Borciani string quartet competition, Europe’s foremost. (No first prize was awarded that year.)

Since then, the Leonkoro, led by violinist Jonathan Schwarz and his cellist brother, Lukas, has performed at major concert halls, including Vienna’s Konzerthaus, home to the Vienna Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, and the Library of Congress. Their first recording was released in fall 2023. Their second was released in Europe in January and will be available for purchase in the U.S. in April. By the time they appear here in April 2026, who can say?

Repertoire

Ludwig van Beethoven, Quartet No. 4 in C Minor, Op. 18, “Lobkowitz,” No. 4 (1798-1800) 24:00

Sauli Zinovjev, New Work for String Quartet (2026-27) – Composed for the Leonkoro Quartet)

intermission

Felix Mendelssohn, String Quartet No. 6 in F Minor, Op.80 (1847) 25:00

CMC Subscriptions: Chamber Music’s Greatest Value

• Our “Early Bird” subscriptions for these six concerts are on sale today on our web site and through the Memorial Hall box office. Only you who are receiving this email know about it, giving you first choice of open seats.
• All available seats will be opened to the general public for subscription purchases on Tuesday, February 24.
• Currents subscribers’ seats will be held until June 1, then released to the general public. The six concert price ― $120 in the Orchestra or Balcony ― is one of the nation’s great chamber music bargains. It’s up to 50% off the single ticket price helping to make our concerts more affordable to everyone.

Please remember this affordability pricing in your giving. Only if you do can we maintain pricing at this level.

We hope you are as excited about next season as we are. This may well be our strongest season ever, so we expect subscriptions to sell fast. Single tickets for remaining seats will go on sale June 1.

Quick Summary
• The Danish String Quartet, now in its 23rd year, is without a doubt the most in-demand European chamber ensemble in America.
• A twp-time Gramophone Award winner and Musical America’s “Ensemble of the Year.”
• While most European ensembles do one U.S. tour each season, the Danes have been doing as many as four.
• In spring 2024, they drew Cincinnati’s third largest audience for chamber music since the COVID shutdown.
• Now, DSQ members have young children and will only make one trip to the U.S. next season. We are fortunate to have them. Cincinnati will likely be the smallest city on their 2026-27 tour.
• The New York Times calls them “an exceptional quartet, whatever repertory they play.”
• Bottom Line: Hear why three times as many U.S. presenter want them as their tour can accommodate.

Deeper Dive

The Danish String Quartet, now in its 23^rd year, is unquestionably the most in-demand European chamber ensemble in America. While most do one U.S. tour each season, and some only every other year, the Danes have been doing as many as four. In spring 2024, they drew Cincinnati’s third largest audience for chamber music since the COVID shutdown. Only by luck did we learn from their agent at the Chamber Music America conference in January 205 that due to its members having young children, they would only do one U.S. tour next season. (In a tech-driven world, personal relationships still have value.) We booked them on the spot.  Cincinnati will almost certainly be the smallest city in which they appear. If you want to know why the DSQ is in such demand, ask anyone who has heard them live.

Repertoire

Gabriella Smith: Carrot Revolution (2015) 11:00
Dmitri Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 14 in F-sharp Major, Op. 142 (1972-73) 27:00

intermission

Danish String Quartet: Original compositions and Danish folk music arrangements

CMC Subscriptions: Chamber Music’s Greatest Value

• Our “Early Bird” subscriptions for these six concerts are on sale today on our web site and through the Memorial Hall box office. Only you who are receiving this email know about it, giving you first choice of open seats.
• All available seats will be opened to the general public for subscription purchases on Tuesday, February 24.

• Currents subscribers’ seats will be held until June 1, then released to the general public. The six concert price ― $120 in the Orchestra or Balcony ― is one of the nation’s great chamber music bargains. It’s up to 50% off the single ticket price helping to make our concerts more affordable to everyone.

Please remember this affordability pricing in your giving. Only if you do can we maintain pricing at this level.

We hope you are as excited about next season as we are. This may well be our strongest season ever, so we expect subscriptions to sell fast. Single tickets for remaining seats will go on sale June 1.

Quick Summary
• We could not be more excited about the return of the ISQ given their stunning performance with pianist Jeremy Denk here last March. The Strad: “Excitement fills the air around the Isidore.”
• We seldom bring back so young an ensemble so soon.
• Joining the ISQ is one of the world’s most exceptional young cellists in his Chamber Music Cincinnati debut.
• After winning the 2022 Banff Competition, it was as if the Isidore was shot out of a cannon. In each of the past three seasons, they’ve played up to 100 concerts.
• With cellist Sterling Elliot they will play what many regard as the single greatest chamber work, Schubert’s String Quintet, written in 1828, just months before his death.
• Their quartet’s first recording, Adorations, name for a Florence Price works, will be out in April. We can’t wait.
• Bottom line: Experience deeply emotional connections to the past, present, and future.

Deeper Dive

If there were an award for the decade’s fastest rise by a young U.S. ensemble, the ISQ would surely win. Formed at Juilliard in 2019 and named for the Julliard Quartet’s Isidore Cohen, they reconvened after the Covid shutdown under the JSQ’s legendary cellist, Joel Krosnick, with coaching by it’s late violist, Roger Tapping, its current cellist, Astrid Schween, and by Joseph Kalichstein, Misha Amory, Donald Weilerstein, and Miriam Fried.

On winning the 2022 Banff Competition, it was as if they had been shot out of a cannon. Their 2023 Chamber Music America showcase performance was attended by many of the nation’s leading chamber music presenters, including CMC. The same year, they were awarded the coveted Avery Fisher Career Grant and have never looked back. During each of the three ensuing seasons, they have played as many as 100 concerts, including last month with clarinetist and former CSO Associate Principal Anthony McGill in Indianapolis.

Sterling Elliot received both Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from Juilliard, where he studied with Juilliard String Quartet cellist Joel Krosnick and with Clara Kim. Still in his mid-twenties, Elliott has appeared with orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Detroit Symphony and the Dallas Symphony, among many.

Repertoire

Anton Webern: Langsamer Satz (1905) 9:00

Billy Childs: String Quartet No. 4 (2026) 25:00 – Composed for Isidore Quartet

intermission

Schubert Quintet in C-Major, D 956 (1828) with Sterling Elliott, cello 51:00

CMC Subscriptions: Chamber Music’s Greatest Value

• Our “Early Bird” subscriptions for these six concerts are on sale today on our web site and through the Memorial Hall box office. Only you who are receiving this email know about it, giving you first choice of open seats.
• All available seats will be opened to the general public for subscription purchases on Tuesday, February 24.
• Currents subscribers’ seats will be held until June 1, then released to the general public. The six concert price ― $120 in the Orchestra or Balcony ― is one of the nation’s great chamber music bargains. It’s up to 50% off the single ticket price helping to make our concerts more affordable to everyone.

Please remember this affordability pricing in your giving. Only if you do can we maintain pricing at this level.

We hope you are as excited about next season as we are. This may well be our strongest season ever, so we expect subscriptions to sell fast. Single tickets for remaining seats will go on sale June 1.