“Brilliance is not a strong enough word – it’s more like an electric shock. The music transfixes the listener from literally the very first note, electrifying heart and brain without any advance warning. Mendelssohn’s music as played by the Mandelring Quartet, under extreme tension, heated and feverish, is dangerously close to catching fire!”

So wrote Zurich’s Neue Zürcher Zeitung. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung declared that the Mandelring Quartet is so good, it is a worthy successor to the Alban Berg Quartet. The leading Austrian arts magazine, Die Bühne, writing of their Shostakovich cycle at the Salzburg Festival, named it as the “heir of the legendary Borodin Quartet.” And the renowned international music magazine Fono Forum named it one of the six best string quartets in the world.

The Mandelring Quartet’s expressivity and remarkable homogeneity of sound and phrasing have become its distinguishing characteristics. The four individual members perform as one in their shared determination to seek out the innermost core of the music and remain open to the musical truth. By grasping the spiritual dimension, exploring the emotional extremes and working on the details, these musicians probe far beneath the surface of each work, thus revealing the multiple layers of meaning inherent in each. Their approach to the music is always both emotional and personal.

Formed in 1983 in the German wine region in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse, three Schmidt siblings - Sebastian, Nanette and Bernhard - join with violist Andreas Willwohl in a partnership dedicated to exemplary performances of chamber music. Their early success winning some of the world’s great competitions – Munich’s (ARD), Evian and Reggio Emilia (Premio Paolo Borciani) – launched an impressive international career that brings them to all corners of the globe. Along with their regular series of concerts in Berlin and Neustadt and performances throughout Germany, their concert tours have taken them through Europe – Amsterdam, Brussels, London, Madrid, Paris and Vienna; regular performances in North America – New York, Washington D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles and Vancouver; to Japan — Osaka and Tokyo; to Central and South America – Buenos Aires, Lima and Montevideo; the Middle East and Asia – including recent appearances in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.  The Mandelring Quartet has enjoyed highly successful appearances at major international Festivals including Lockenhaus, Montpelier, Montreal, Ottawa, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Enescu Festival in Bucharest and the Salzburg Festival where they presented the complete cycle of 15 string quartets of Shostakovich. They were Quartet in Residence for the 2020/21 season of the Circulo de Bellas Artes in Madrid and most recently appeared for the fourth time at Madrid’s Royal Palace performing on the renowned Stradivarius Palatinoinstruments of the Royal collection.

The Mandelring Quartet’s own festival, the HAMBACHER MusikFEST, is an annual meeting place for lovers of chamber music from all over the world. Since 2010 the Quartet has presented a regular series of concerts in its hometown of Neustadt, in the Chamber Music Hall of the Berlin Philharmonie, and since 2016, in the Munich Residenz.

Their discography includes more than thirty CD recordings, which have repeatedly been awarded the German Record Critics’ Prize and nominated for the International Classical Music Award, confirming the Mandelring Quartet’s exceptional quality and wide-ranging repertoire. Their recordings of the complete string quartets of Shostakovich and complete chamber music of Mendelssohn have been hailed as among the finest complete recordings our time. Recordings of works by Schubert and Schumann have been selected as new benchmark performances along with the complete String Quintets and Sextets of Johannes Brahms and more recent releases of French repertoire.

In 2014 the Mandelring Quartet was the cover feature ofThe Strad, the leading English-language classical music magazine. The Mandelring Quartet celebrated its 40th Anniversary in 2023.

January 2024 - please discard any previously posted matreial

Critical Acclaim:

Mandelring Quartett brilliantly celebrates the conclusion of its Beethoven-Bartók cycle
“This final meeting of the two great masters was a a celebration. It became clear that the Mandelring Quartet was tailor-made for the music. Bartók's Quartet was nothing short of exemplary! His six string quartets contain the composer's most sublime music. The Mandelring made contrasts stand out clearly and lived up to its reputation for always entertaining, yet analytical music. Magnificent! The presentation by the four of them was so moving.: It couldn't get any better! You would have liked to take this home with you as a reference recording. It was overwhelming! But after the break, Beethoven's last quartet was still waiting. So everyone stayed and listened to the master's final String Quartet Op. 135 in F major, a composition that is astonishing for its cheerfulness.”
Die Rheinpfalz – December 4, 2023

Swinging and compelling: A Brilliant start to Autumn Concerts with the Mandelring Quartet.
“With excellent playing, the renowned Mandelring Quartet provided a breathtaking start to Leitheim Autumn Concerts. Energy, perfection, and emotion shaped an inspiring event. In Mozart's string quartet in G the lively performance was so transparent and filled with light, the quartet epitomized the inspired joy of making music. Mendelssohn takes you on an inner journey right from the start. With outstanding expressiveness and creative power, the Mandelring Quartet displayed the full vitality and mature art of the work, its charm, its imagination, its depth and passion in organic balance and finely shaded timbres. Dvorák's ‘American’ Quartet is absolutley idyllic. Here, too, they shone with heightened homogeneous empathy, giving form and color to the diverse impressions. Peace of mind could be felt, sometimes in experimental dynamic exuberance, sometimes in a sensitive, pastoral blaze of color.”                      
Augsburger Allgemeine – October 3, 2023

Revelation to the senses
“The music festival in Blumenthal Castle is a revelation for the senses, which became clear at the opening concert Thursday evening. The Mandelring Quartet play in the top league of the international classical music world. To be so close and then listen to them in this extraordinary place is an experience that can hardly be topped. The Mozart was fantastic, while the Brahms was moving. To top it all off: Schumann. With no printed programs the concentration is entirely on the music, and you create your own images, set off on your own emotions. The audience was so intoxicated by the music and the sounds of these virtuosos that even in the short pauses in the movement there was no clearing the throat, no coughing, no rustling to be heard. Thunderous applause, all eyes beaming.”                                                         
Süddeutsche Zeitung – September 2, 2023

The Blumenthal Music Festival gets off to a successful start
“Everything was just right: the understanding among the musicians, the morbid charm and the atmosphere in the attic hall of the farm building, through to the connection between the protagonists and the large audience. The Sielenbach clarinetist and artistic director of the festival, Georg Arzberger, and the Mandelring Quartet received thunderous applause.
Aichach-Blumenthal  September 2, 2023

"The history of Musika-Música could also be written by the quartets it has hosted since its inception, among which the Mandelring holds a place reserved for the best. In Quartet No. 14 they showed by the way of suggestion and nuance how dark Schubert's life was when composing it, without effects or concessions, playing with an admirable competition (they emphasized with identical precision, the crescendos came from afar and confronted them" together, the first violin dominated the ensemble but everything was heard to the others) and an elegance they borrowed from the historical quartets.”
Scherzo Magazine (Spain) - March 7, 2023

“The Mandelring culminated with the haunting ‘Quartetto Serioso’ by Beethoven. With the cello taking the lead, the quartet achieved great balance and enormous expressiveness while alternating classical motifs with groundbreaking harmonies and tending towards instability. It should be noted that one of the best chamber ensembles in the world, the Mandelring is dedicated to commissioning contemporary pieces, giving voice to young values and promoting reflection through music. That for many years we can enjoy this incessant search and this nonconformity.”
Núvol - February 8, 2023

“The engagement ended with a concert by the magnificent Mandelring Quartett. The famed quartet brought maturity and quality with a special attention to detail and expressiveness, as was evident in an intense Quartet Op. 95 by Beethoven, and in the evanescent Post Lucem by Ferran Cruixent, composer-in-residence this season at the Palau de la Música Catalana.”
La Vanguardia - February 5, 2023

Rich in goosebump moments
“Everything with Glazunov is done so elegantly, everything sounds so bright and juicy, all the colors are so rich and strong. After their tour de force with two important chamber music works, the Mandelring Quartet and Thomas show no signs of fatigue in Schubert's String Quintet in C major. On the contrary, all five were in an intoxicating mood, developing an almost orchestral sound, serving up exciting explosive increases in tempo in the finale and leave - as already mentioned at the beginning - a completely over the moon audience. The heavenly, delicately articulated second movement remains unforgettable - music created for eternity, performed by a wonderfully sensitively coordinated quintet as the climax of an evening so richly blessed with goose bumps. The inevitable encore: our interpreters set a beautiful sign for peace at the end, initiated with the meltingly beautiful rendition of the piece ‘Melody’ by the Ukrainian composer Myroslav Skoryk.”
Die Rheinpfralz - November 29, 2022

“The Mandelring Quartett enjoy the benefits of a superbly vivid recording and the playing, particularly in the more lyrical sections of the score, has a great deal of finesse and sophistication.”
BBC Music August 24, 2022

Brahms in perfection: with a brilliant Mandelring Quartet:
“The Mandelring Quartet set artistic standards with its performance of Brahms' complete string chamber music. We experienced chamber music of the highest perfection. The four musicians are absolutely outstanding, brilliant players. The elegance with which the performers negotiated the trickiest passages at breakneck speed was more than impressive. The highly virtuoso tour de force was performed with ravishing, elemental swing. The exquisite vocal beauty of the darkly toned viola tone produced by Andreas Willwohl should not go unmentioned. Incorruptible musical competence and the creative presence were always present. The sound of the ensemble was optimally balanced throughout, the dialogue of the instruments always clear, exemplary, with an intense inner life of the voices. Everything seemed extraordinarily meaningful - and stylish - while the malleable profile of the musical figures was always captivating. Expression was capitalized from the first to the last note: played with reason and heart, with a highly refined sense of detail. Concertgoers were captivated from the start of the first concert by the emphasis on the tonal speech, by the fiery impulse and the interplay of tension and relaxation. These, contrasted with the extremely sensitively executed lyricism and the elegantly served Viennese accents of the second quartet, performed with captivating vigor, esprit and at times with tongue-in-cheek merriment, are particularly memorable.”
Die Rheinpfalz - May 10, 2022

“Those hoping for a great moment in chamber music were not disappointed. In three concerts the Mandelring Quartet offered both a brilliant Brahms program and an impressive artistic attitude. The beautiful in the terrible, the soulful, moving expression, against abrupt harshness, rapid changes in tempo and expressively cutting heights. It is pure poetry, sometimes existentially mixed with melancholy or spring fever. A sounding cosmos in which the risks and unpredictability of Brahms' music, its threats or painful memories are reconstructed down to the smallest detail. Chamber music as a space for relationships. A place where sensations can be created without words. The Mandelring communicate on their instruments, imagining ideas and images that elude concrete thinking. Gorgeous!”                                                        
Mannheimer Morgen - May 9, 2022

“The Mandelring Quartet plays it all beautifully – the jaunty syncopated opening, the flowing melodic lines, the percussive pizzicato, the tangy rhythms and scales, the lulling slow movement, and the skipping jubilation of the finale.”                                            The Absolute Sound – April 2022

Unexpected but brilliant
“What a sound! With a smooth, beautiful sound, they present Beethoven with all his exciting ups and downs, corners and edges - and at the same time the large emotional spectrum with which the innovative hothead first recommended himself as a great quartet composer. In Bartók the Mandelring Quartet succeeds in both good balance between rhythmic and dynamic movement and the lyrical quality. What is most impressive, however, is their almost unsurpassable perfection in reproducing the coloring, the sophisticated new timbres with which Bartók caused a sensation in the music world. Breathlessly we follow the flickering and shimmering of the strings. The sensational play of tonal colors of the Quartet culminates in a bravura of coloristic quartet art. After the tour de force with Bartók, the Quartet set off for new shores with Beethoven without the slightest trace of fatigue: a crackling, exciting performance with contrasts. Absolute calm succeeds in the second movement, when Sebastian Schmidt on violin and his brother Bernhard on cello outdo each other in singing lines. High art in the following presto and the seamless variation movement perfectly coordinated invites one to perfect listening pleasure. Encores in Corona times are rare; the Mandelrings made an exception for its completely over-the-moon audience and repeated Bartók's pizzicato movement as a catchy tune for the way home.”
Die Rheinpfalz – January 25, 2022

“Visitors to the Pirmasens Festhalle experienced a performance in a class of its own. The balanced sound of the musicians was already apparent in the quartet in D minor by Haydn. A quiet, latent unrest erupted in the Minuet; the final Vivace captivated beautifully. Beethoven was rich with subtly differentiated articulation that allowed the quartet to take shape in a very conscious but also sensitive manner. The probing character came out very well in their interpretation. The most subtle nuances brought out even the smallest differences until at the end the subtle restlessness trembled with every single note. In the Ravel strikingly outlined contours and heavy beats, together with dark colors and rising and falling glissandos created a somber, elegiac mood full of nostalgic drama. From excited impulses and falling runs, an almost precipitous process to increase the dramatic urgency, with which the rousingly-played work ended in a very moving way. The artists thanked their enthusiastically applauding listeners with an encore; ‘Pennies from Heaven’ was touching with its warm, dark colors and its long arcs of melody, which seemed to be dreaming softly.”
Die Rheinpfalz – January 18, 2022

“Thanks to the Mandelring Quartet for drawing attention to the fine magic and shining brilliance of an almost unknown person like Jean Rivier. The two string quartets recorded here for the first tine are captivating with their eloquence, richness of contrast and rhythmic finesse. Resonances of Debussy and Ravel are unmistakable, but not imitative. The second is much more impulsive, more attacking than the first. The Mandelrings adhere to this in an exemplary manner, also in Debussy's quartet, filled with air, wind and sun, clearly outlined in their playing.” 
Süddeutsche Zeitung – December 6, 2021

Emotional performance ride
After numerous postponements, the concert premiere was all the more impressive. And it was no coincidence that the world-famous Mandelring Quartet made a guest appearance at the place of its artistic genesis, with a series of concerts that couldn't have been more spectacular. Spread over three days and six concerts, the complete 15-work string quartet cycle by Shostakovich was heard: a moving walk through one of the most tragic and exciting artist biographies of the 20th century. A brilliant achievement in concentration. Technically and emotionally, it was a grand performance ride- atmospherically overwhelming.”                    
Die Rheinpfalz - November 2, 2021

“A beautiful, beautiful disc by wonderful players. This is one of the great string quartets out there. And you should hear their work. You just should hear their work. It's wonderful stuff. You will be oh so happy that you heard this."              
Classics Today - September 23, 2021

A grand finale
“The interpretation of the Mandelring Quartet made the emotional range from feverishly vibrant opening to liberating vocalism palpable. In the performance of Debussy's only string quartet, on the threshold of breaking from traditional forms, influences of pentatonic and gamelan music were comprehensible, but sound more distinctive to today's listening habits; the combination of high precision and homogeneity with emotional engagement was admirable. The concert and festival ended with one of the most demanding works of chamber music: Schubert's String Quintet in C major. Here, the Mandelring Quartet with Janina Ruh showed itself together at the highest musical level. The two cellos created a deep-toned sound that was sensitively balanced by the ensemble. Even the sharp clash of vocal passages with sudden eruptions became tangible in the intended effect. Thus, the Mandelring Quartet succeeded in an impressive concert evening, which was rewarded by the large audience with a long standing ovation”
Schwarzwälder Bote – October 30, 2018

Soft tones and passionate appeal
“Schwarzenberg was again the center of top-class chamber music at the end of the week. Schubert's Octet and the Quartet ‘Rosamunde’ are fixed stars in the Schubertiade. In the latter case, the Mandelring Quartet convinced with uncommonly cultivated playing. It used soft tones, without neglecting the quite gripping accents and contrasts. Cultivated and simple, the variation movement provided rich and varied illumination in the melodious playing. After the break, the group expanded: their love of chamber music and their common creation uniting them with the tightly interwoven string quartet. Thus, the audience was treated to the splendid octet with its true musical essence: with verve and compelling dynamic appeal, sustained melodic lines and exuberant dance movements.”                                                   
Schwäbische Zeitung - June 27, 2018

Shooting sparks of vitality. Mandelring Quartet set milestones for Schubertiade start.
“This 43rd Schubertiade brings together the elite of renowned artists from song, chamber music and piano music. The Mandelring Quartet opened the proceedings. Initially restrained and controlled in every phrase, it soon blossomed up to electrifying effect with an extensive dynamic range, a rich palette of colors and a focus on those emotions that go to make this work into one of Schubert’s most ambiguous. The sparks of liveliness in spontaneous togetherness now spray far more than in the routine of a long-established ensemble.” 
Vorarlberger Nachrichten - June 25, 2018
 
Great string music
“A cohesive ensemble formed immediately. The tender passages were convincing and captivating. One needs to also praise the absolute cleanliness of the sound, even in the furious conclusion. They played up to the highest standard here. It became clear how the voices depend on each other - the highly motivated players gave the music elegant momentum. At the close there was long-lasting applause, grateful for a great concert.”
Schleswig-Holstein Zeitung – November 22, 2017

“The Mandelrings offered Wolf's ‘Serenade’ with wit, lightness and the stage presence that distinguishes a world-class ensemble. All the evangelical spirits gathered together and pacified each other in Brahms' Op. 51/2. There was huge applause and, as an encore, the pizzicato movement from Ravel’s Quartet.”
Süddeutsch Zeitung – May 31, 2017

“The Mandelring Quartet is praised for being one of the best quartets in the world. Clean, strikingly clear and tempo rich, they never stop searching for the core of the music. Breathing crescendo arches and amber shimmering timbre. Each voice is doubly occupied as a sense of symphonic sound passes through the hall. Loud cheering.”
Der Tagesspiel – May 3, 2017

Worldclass: Absolutely great music in Bad Urach
“The hall offered a close-up musical experience for the well-attended performance. Only four strings, but the basis for inspired interplay. First with Haydn, they show their fine sense for ensemble and for the content of the music – lustful, virtuosic, always precisely controlled, supported by secure technique, balance and elaborate articulation, sensitively led by principal violinist  Sebastian Schmidt. The humorous and solid presentation is convincing. Schubert's String Quartet in A minor also transmitted almost physically to the listeners up to the ecstatic finale with nuance-rich articulation – the more than 30 minutes pass by as if in flight. Beethoven's Op. 59/2 must have had a ‘new music’ effect on its contemporaries, with feeling transferred from the Mandelring Quartet for the full work. An enormous musical force is demanded and felt, partly finely chiseled, partly in broad strokes. In the end, raging in the whirlwind of the dance finale – pushed to the limits of madness. After the closing sound: lively applause.”
Südwest Presse – April 9, 2017
 

“The Mandelring Quartet’s tone is distinguished by such a degree of tension yet also fragility that one fears everything must burst in the very first bars: the music, the listener’s heart, the whole world. But instead they sing and cry out, in terror and mysteriously wan beauty: music, heart, world. The Mandelring Quartet’s Schubert is so eloquent that it makes one speechless. Poignantly painful, exceptionally beautiful.”
Hundert11 - February 23, 2017

“What unfolds in Berg’s Lyric Suite is not a drama of loneliness but a drama of love between Alban Berg and Hanna Fuchs. Once again the quartet gives a wonderfully illuminating insight into the highly virtuosic score; the whispering third movement seems full of trepidation, the love night positively glows.”
Clemens Goldberg, Kulturradio des RBB

“A work by Berg can be played in two ways: coolly and analytically or with full tone and great pathos. The Mandelring Quartet combines the two approaches and masters the score with breathtaking precision."
Berliner Zeitung

“Years of common musical and family connections certainly pay off, and the Mandelring Quartet is a perfect example. These musicians have long expanded their repertoire. Following the enthusiastic audience applause, the musicians thanked us with a medley and the tango by Guinot.”
Schwäbische - February 14, 2017

Munich, Residenz, Max-Joseph-Saal: The Art of Chamber Music
“The F Major string quartet by Brahms’s contemporary Felix Otto Dessoff is ‘charming, compositionally ambitious, free from any deliberate display of erudition, and never derivative’, and lauds the Mandelring Quartet‘s ‘manifest delight in surprising us with this elegant work’.

The musicians exploit Dvořák’s American Quartet to the full with supreme skill: the vitality of the opening movement, the spacious Lento, so touching and full of yearning, the rhythmically witty Scherzo and the irresistibly fiery finale. The Mandelring’s rendition became a somber yet rugged C minor sound-world. This contrasts with “charm and a touch of dance-like swing” in the third movement, and a “tenderly beatific cantilena” in the encore, the Andante cantabile from Tchaikovsky’s opus 11.                    

Harald Eggebrecht, Süddeutsche Zeitung– January 31, 2017

Neubeuern Castle series: Fireworks
"The Mandelring Quartet thanked the audience for its enthusiastic applause. The Quartet is a highly esteemed ensemble, which captivated listeners with its expressive playing, high culture and uncommon musical color in string quartets of Haydn, Schubert and Beethoven. The Quartet interpreted Schubert's Rosamunde with great sensitivity and harmonious sound balance. The work is characterized by incredible color and compelling melodic influence. Beethoven once again demonstrated the highly differentiated sound cultivation of the ensemble. After the graceful scherzo the finale with its stomping dance rhythm seemed like fireworks. The movement rose to a virtuoso, spirited presto, to which the listeners gave a stormy ovation.”

Oberbayerisches Volksblatt – January 27, 2017

Forbes Magazine in its overview of 2016’s best recordings: Jan. 1, 2017
“....the mellifluous aspect of the Mandelring Quartet.”    

The complete Brahms string quintets on Audite:
“The Mandelring Quartet with Roland Glassl as second violist makes the diversity and complexity of the music audible in a profound way. We enjoy to the full the cantabile beauty of the set from the first quintet; experiencing the Beethoven-like recitals of the finale in an almost symphonic fullness. The beginning of the G Major quintet breathes a passionate spirit, and the melancholy of the ensuing Adagio is conveyed by the cantilevering of the individual voices. In short, the Mandelring musicians allow us to experience Brahms in the full range of his expressive spectrum and aesthetic content - which is very good!”

Rondo Magazine – December 3, 2016

“In the performance of Mendelssohn’s first string quartet, the four musicians immediately confronted the highly concentrated character of this concert. Clear, but always precise, sketching the temperaments with powerful, yet cultivated second movement theme attacks and a narrative, resolved tone in the third. In Paul Engels’ ‘Hommage à Robert Schumann,’ shimmering quotations of themes by Schumann, as well as motifs of Brahms, offered numerous ‘aha’ moments. Engels’ immediate, sometimes tonal, and often enormously propulsive music was stated in expressive reveries. Schumann's piano quintet was the climax concert. Dynamic restraint with simultaneous eloquence, infused in the first movement, intensified to the furioso-marked scherzo: everything was feverish, under high tension, courageous and expressive. As thanks for the intense applause, the second movement from the piano quintet of Johannes Brahms.”

Wiesbadener Kurier – December 1, 2016 

“The concert sparkled with orchestral richness and playful brilliance. After a rich prelude, the Shostakovich Scherzo unfolded with breath-taking energy achieving an orchestral sound. The piece becomes a work of screaming expressivity in the Mandelring’s hands. They unquestionably played its usual high level, excelling as the changing principal voices unfolded.”

Volksfreund - October 14, 2016

“The pianist Ian Fountain joined the Mandelring Quartet in this evening of Schumann. They matched so sensitively and with such fine shading that one wished it could go on forever. The sighing of individual instruments (the plangent tone of Andreas Willwohl’s viola being particularly impressive) and their collective sigh in the seemingly weightless ascending islands of remembrance was a triumph of the perfectly harmonious concordance. Schumann’s String Quartet in A minor was a perfect model of ensemble playing. They immersed themselves with ineffable gentleness in the Andante espressivo introduction, with every part singing and each fugue sounding like a canon. The Adagio, tense to the point of heartbreak, was exquisite. When, before the end of the finale, the downward runs pause, the earth seemed to stop turning as we held our breath in a moment of Schumann bliss.”

Hundert111 - April 15, 2016

Mandelring Quartet thrills
“The Mandelring Quartet delighted listeners with three masterpieces played with discipline and an emotional dedication that captivated. Mozart's ‘Hunt’ Quartet was bubbling with life and energy. Ravel's Quartet created a deep experience of light and color in the room. It was a marvel. Dvorák's ‘American’ Quartet’ articulates his experience in the vastness of the New World as a tonal language. The musicians could barely hold to their seats. Wow! The intensity echoed silently throughout the hall. Finally one could breath followed by huge applause! Then a wonderful aftertaste with Dvorák's Waltz in A Major. Fantastic.”

Rheinische Post– November 24, 2015

Playing to the limits of expressivity

“The four players advance with great concentration and sensitivity to the limits of expressivity, whose energies remain perceptible even when the underlying simmering power occasionally gives way to a wonderful luminosity.... The Mandelring's players are both conscientious and inspired, and this is equally true in the rugged, Beethoven-inspired sudden plunges in mood that seem to testify to the threats inherent in life.”

Mannheimer Morgen - October 2, 2015

“The first concert of the Mandelring Quartet's classics series was a delightful feast of chamber music of the most exquisite kind. Ovations after each individual piece and at the end of the evening were overwhelmingly enthusiastic.It was all impeccable: the totally homogeneous, pellucid ensemble and the perfectly calculated crafting of the melodic lines as the basis for an extremely lively, intensive dialogue in chamber music: seamless transitions and sudden dynamic changes, achieved with lightning reactions by all the players. To hear the Mandelring Quartet playing quietly is just astonishing. This ensemble possesses an exceptionally wide spectrum of subtle tonal nuances and shades of colour, employed with the greatest delicacy.”

Neustadt/Weinstrasse - Die Rheinpfalz - September 15, 2015

Mandelring Quartet sets standards

“The Mandelring Quartet wowed playing Haydn, Mendelssohn and Gernsheim at the Bonndorfer Castle. They shone with a brilliant directness of expression in this extremely entertaining program. This quartet made you want more.”

Badische Zeitung - April 22, 2015

Vol. 3 of the Complete Chamber Music for Strings of Mendelssohn:
“The Mandelrings play the music for all it’s worth, ratcheting up the excitement in the minor-key variation at the heart of the slow movement, capturing the elfin capriciousness of the scherzo. Advocacy like the Mandelrings give this music shows how much emotional fervor as well as craft there is in Mendelssohn’s art, early and late. Given the power and beauty of the performances, I fervently recommend.”

AudiophileAudition - March 1, 2015

“Ligeti’s Metamorphoses Nocturnes is technically difficult, but sounded enchanting in this strong interpretation. The audience rewarded the dense, emphatic presentation and the mastery of the enormous difficulties with frenetic and prolonged applause. Their interpretation was outstanding!  Haydn's ‘Lerch Quartet’ sounded expressive, vibrant and fragrant, with a continuous joy that was reinforced by the apparent ease of perfectly matched playing and homogeneity. Two Waltzes by Dvorak stressed once more what the playing of the Mandelring is about: technical brilliance, unstrained playing emphasizing expression and a round, beautiful sound.”

Nordwest Zeitung – January 19, 2015

“Nothing could follow this. The Schubert is moving in its power, beauty and tragedy, especially when presented with such intensity. The musicians of the Mandelring Quartet find a very earthy, almost virtuoso access. The melodic arches seduce the audience in beautiful worlds, and then violence destroys the idyll. The second movement is more gripping still. The musicians bring out the stark contrast of sounds. The prancing third movement spills over so suddenly into the sadness of death. The Mandelring Quartet has long been one of the best chamber music ensembles in the world. They perform with incredible perfection and a smooth beautiful sound. There was enthusiastic applause from the Ingolstadt audience.”

Donaukurier - November 28, 2014

“Everything that Mandelrings have to throw at these pieces shows them to be at their best advantage. Fleet footed bowing, tongue-in-groove intonation and ensemble and a sense of momentum that always drives the music in the right direction. The Definitive set is complete.”

Gramophone Magazine – September 2014

“A concert of the class of the Mandelring Quartet absolutely made this year's season of Rudert Festivals. They are among the most renowned ensembles in the classical music scene. The audience used every last seat in the hall and was still. Four string players drew them, with everything music has to offer: finesse, heterogeneity and stunning line. Ranging from Haydn to Shostakovich, to Schubert's ‘Death and the Maiden,’ music was presented with overwhelming intensity. The Mandelrings explored every nuance hidden in those complex works. The explosive expressivity in Shostakovich's lonely, gloomy narrative contrasted with the musicians’ serenity in their playing; an impression of weightlessness and a bewitching ambivalence. The overflow audience finally resorted to prolonged applause, the enthusiasm carrying out into the autumn air.”

Schwarzwälder Bote – October 28, 2014

30th Anniversary celebration with five concerts in Berlin:
“Since the appearance of their complete recording of all fifteen string quartets of Dmitri Shostakovich, the Mandelring Quartet has ranked among the world's most exciting quartets. Recording all the Mendelssohn quartets this year has enhanced their reputation even further. The Mandelring Quartet reveals how expressive and radical this composer could really be. It is hard to believe the degree of mastery with which they play around with tonal inflections, how figurations spill into sonorities and sonorities into figurations, how, even in savage chords and sudden silences, they draw in scenic elements, and introduce a pervasive, droll humor that anticipates the later Ligeti.”

Berliner Zeitung - July 13, 2014

"Schubert's ‘Death and the Maiden’ is definitely the most popular choice and the Mandelrings' interpretation precisely conveys that duality between the fear of death and the longing for it. The audience, closely grouped around the podium, shares the passion of the players first hand, with no loss of friction.”

Tagesspiegel - July 13, 2014

“In the course of thirty years the four members of the famous Mandelring Quartet have grown so close that even their breathing seems synchronized. They speak with a single voice and feel with a single great heart."                                                                     Berliner Morgenpost - July 14, 2014

“The Mandelring Quartet’s interpretation of the Schubert ‘Quartet in D Minor’ was inimitable. In its guest appearance at the Teo Otto Theater the world-renowned ensemble brought the many facets of this music to the fore: melancholy as well as exuberance. An aching jubilation that seemed to unite all opposites, bringing a huge ‘Wow!’ from the rows of seats.. Their self-confidence shown in the great theme and they sounded as if to own it. All hell broke out in the ‘Scherzo’ before Sebastian Schmidt brought the ‘Presto’ to a virtuoso finale.”

Remscheider General Anzeiger - June 6, 2014

A great concert, always startlingly intense in Germany’s Villa Rot Museum
“As soon as the first few bars played, the listener was captivated by the intense feeling as well as the individuality of this top ensemble. Their lifelong familiarity with this music is certainly one reason for their unique harmony.”

Schwäbisch Media - May 26, 2014
 

“A fascinating concert with corners and edges at Bonn Castle. The Mandelring Quartet plays with almost unsettling precision, exploring contrasts, even where they might not be expected, offering a high degree of expressiveness. Schubert's String Quartet No. 9 rang with an inner tension, as if there were a paradox with precisely calibrated loveliness. They presented the final Allegro partly mysterious, partly playful and always wise. The first movement of Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 3 accentuated the change to rich, full string sound presented in a trickster’s way: unpredictable musical turns and delicate harlequinades, a balancing act between light-spirited grace and subliminal despair. Schubert's ‘Death and the Maiden’ showed clearly the particular homogeneity and expressiveness of these four brilliant musicians. Almost with bated breath they ramped up the voltage. Highly sensitive and highly dramatic, powerful weighty chords answered by a tender whisper.”

Badische Zeitung - April 30, 2014

“Clearly, the Mandelring Quartet succeed in making me take this music more seriously. They proceed to play the music with intensity. It is obsessive in its forward momentum. That jaunty finale is a blazing juggernaut  - good-natured, but there’s real brio as well. The Mandelrings have given me a whole new perspective on this piece. The musicians bring the same level of intensity to the remarkable Octet. The work can certainly handle it, and the playing is brilliant.  The Mandelrings play the music for all it’s worth, ratcheting up the excitement in the minor-key variation, capturing the elfin capriciousness of the scherzo. Advocacy like the Manderlings give this music shows just how much emotional fervor as well as craft there is in Mendelssohn’s art.”

Audiophile Audition - March 1, 2014

“The Mandelring is a quartet’s quartet, matching technical finesse with insightful interpretation. Its rendition of Beethoven’s Quartet Op. 18, No 2 was a winning balance of charm and meticulousness presented with exacting care and attention; the trajectories of the individual movements and the overall whole were fastidiously defined and elegantly delivered.  Gyorgy Ligeti’s Second String Quartet dates from the 1960s, and sounds like it. Cast in five short movements, it explores the extended techniques and textures that seemed so revolutionary at the time, but were actually following pathways blazed by Bartok three decades earlier. No matter. Familiarity with Ligeti’s once-difficult idiom made the brilliance of the Mandelring’s flawless presentation all the more evident: the work received a strikingly committed performance.  Shostakovich’s Second String Quartet (1944) rounded out the program. Accuracy and precision are the Mandelring’s exemplary virtues. Here these were matched by deep feeling, and one was never at a loss to understand the rhetoric of the work. But the lasting impact came from a vision that stressed Shostakovich’s place in the historical string quartet tradition and his eloquent use of its shared language, not just his own Soviet-Expressionist dialect.  Rarely have we witnessed this remarkable music delivered with such nuance, logic, and clarity.

The Vancouver Sun:  February 26, 2014