Hagen Quartet

Lukas Hagen, violin | Rainer Schmidt, violin | Veronika Hagen, viola | Clemens Hagen, cello

“One of the finest quartets of our time...”
— The Washington Post
 

  • The New York Times’ description of the Hagen Quartet’s playing is particularly powerful: “It is hard to know what to admire most in the quartet’s playing. It is almost impeccable, despite the many risks being taken: tempos nudged ahead, dynamics pushed, pauses extended to the breaking point. The focus and unanimity are astounding. The music seems to have an inner life. Even when it is soft and slow, it retains energy. If it is not actually growing louder, it may seem to be intensifying; if it is not actually changing in pitch, it may seem to be changing in color. You get the impression that every note, every gesture has been carefully considered.”

  • The Quartet performs in the major concert halls worldwide with recent performances at the Wigmore Hall, Cité de la Musique, Carnegie Hall, Menuhin Festival Gstaad, Dresden Music Festival, and perfomrances of the complete Beethoven cycle at the 92nd Street NY.

  • Soon after its founding in 1981, the Hagen Quartet signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon that resulted in forty-five albums over the next twenty years featuring a wide array of repertoire, a project that has resulted in some of the iconic quartet recordings. The Quartet's most recent recording, featuring Mozart String Quartets K. 387 and K. 458, was awarded the Diapason d'Or and the Choc de Classica, as well as the coveted German ECHO Klassik Prize.

After concerts by the "four world-class string players from Salzburg" (Hamburger Abendblatt), there is "absolute silence for almost minutes, conscious of having experienced something extraordinary". This is how the press describes it. All the listeners have in common is "only the wish: may it never end".

 In the 2024-25 season, the Hagen Quartet will focus on string quartets by Haydn, Schumann, Janáček and Brahms. However, quintets by Mozart and Brahms with Sabine Meyer and Jörg Widmann as well as Schubert with Julia Hagen and Gautier Capuçon are also on the program. The 2024/25 tours will take the Hagen Quartet to France, Norway, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, England and the USA. In addition to the cycle at the Wiener Konzerthaus, the Hagen Quartet will also perform at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, the Wigmore Hall in London and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.

The Hagen Quartet's unparalleled career, which has already spanned four decades, began in 1981. The first years were marked by competition successes and an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. During the decades of collaboration, numerous recordings were made to explore the almost endless quartet repertoire, from which the Hagen Quartet's unmistakable profile developed. Subsequent recordings on the myrios classics label have also received international critical acclaim and major awards. A recording together with Jörg Widmann and clarinet quintets by Widmann and Mozart has just been released. The Hagen Quartet has been an honorary member of the Konzerthaus Wien since 2012 and received the Concertgebouw Amsterdam Prijs in 2019 for its many years of artistic radiance and contribution. 

  • The quartet's repertoire consists of delightful and intelligently combined programmes spanning the entire history of the string quartet. In addition, the Hagen Quartet is dedicated to premieres by composers of its generation. Collaboration with artists such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt and György Kurtág was and is just as important to the Hagen Quartet as joint concert performances with Maurizio Pollini, Mitsuko Uchida, Krystian Zimerman, Heinrich Schiff, Jörg Widmann, Kirill Gerstein, Sol Gabetta and Gautier Capucon. 

    For a large number of young string quartets, the Hagen Quartet is a role model in terms of sound quality, stylistic diversity, interplay and serious engagement with the works and composers of their genre. As teachers and mentors at the Salzburg Mozarteum, the Hochschule Basel and at international master classes, they pass on this wealth of experience to their younger colleagues. 

    The Hagen Quartet plays on old Italian master instruments.


    August 2024 – Please do not edit without permission.


Videos

 

Programs & Repertoire

 

  • PROGRAM I
    Joseph Haydn: String Quartet in G major, Op. 54, No. 1, Hob. III/58
    Joseph Haydn: String Quartet in E major, Op. 54, No. 3, Hob. III/59
    *****
    Robert Schumann: String Quartet No. 1 in A minor, Op. 41, No. 1
    -OR-
    Robert Schumann: String Quartet No. 3 in A major, Op. 41, No. 3

    PROGRAM II
    Joseph Haydn: String Quartet in A major, Op. 55, No. 1, Hob. III/60
    Joseph Haydn: String Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 55, No. 3, Hob. III/62
    *****
    Robert Schumann: String Quartet No. 1 in A minor, Op. 41, No. 1
    -OR-
    Robert Schumann: String Quartet No. 3 in A major, Op. 41, No. 3

  • PROGRAM
    Beethoven: String Quartet in F minor, Op. 95, No. 11
    Anton Webern: Düster und Schwer
    *****
    Schubert: String Quartet No. 13 in A minor (the Rosamunde Quartet), D. 804, Op. 29