Gewandhaus Quartet

The Gewandhaus Quartet (German: Gewandhaus-Quartett) is a string quartet based in Leipzig. It was founded in 1808 by members of the Gewandhaus Orchester, as one of the first professional quartets in the world. In its more than 200-year history, they played many world premieres.

In 1808, members of the Gewandhaus Orchester formed a string quartet,^[1] possibly following the model of the Schuppanzigh Quartet from Vienna, to play quartets mainly by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. Since then, it has been formed by concertmasters and players of the orchestra.^[1]

The original members were Heinrich August Matthäi (1781–1835), who is considered the quartet's founder, Bartolomeo Campagnoli (1751–1827), who was concertmaster at the time, violist Johann Georg Hermann Voigt (1769–1811) and cellist Friedrich Dotzauer (1783–1860). After Matthäi died in 1835, Ferdinand David (1810–1873) succeeded him, both as quartet primariu and as concertmaster.

In the course of its 200-year history, which was interrupted only shortly after the Second World War, the quartet had over 100 members. Important members were Carl Traugott Queisser (1800–1846), Joseph Joachim (1831–1907), Engelbert Röntgen (1829–1897), Julius Klengel (1859–1933), Gerhard Bosse (1922–2012) and Karl Suske (born in 1934).

In addition, the quartet has performed with important other soloists, including Clara Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Edvard Grieg, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Arthur Nikisch.^[1]

As of 2020 the members are:^[1]

• Frank-Michael Erben
• Conrad Suske
• Anton Jivaev
• Léonard Frey-Maibach

Claudius Böhm, who has researched the history of the quartet, argues that the Gewandhaus Quartet most likely played the world premiere of Beethoven's String Quartet, Op. 74, also Mendelssohn's string quartets, in D major, Op. 32, and in E flat major, Op. 44/3. They probably performed Schumann's String Quartet in A minor Op. 41/1 as well as his Piano Quintet in E flat major, Op. 44, and his Piano Quartet in E flat major, Op. 47. Further premiered compositions were by Niels Gade, Louis Spohr, Ignacy Feliks Dobrzyński, Anton Rubinstein, Max Bruch, Salomon Jadassohn, Ethel Smyth, Felix Weingartner, Hermann Ambrosius, Antonín Dvořák, Siegfried Thiele, Günter Kochan, and others.^[1]

• Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik
• Internationaler Mendelssohn-Preis zu Leipzig [de] 2014^[1]

• Claudius Böhm: Das Gewandhaus-Quartett. Kamprad, Altenburg 2008.^[2]

• Literature by and about Gewandhaus Quartet in the German National Library catalogue
• Homepage Gewandhaus Quartet