The birth of the Gewandhaus Quartet struck in 1808, when the violinist August Matthäi began to organize quartet nights with three other musicians of the Gewandhaus Orchestra. Thus, the Gewandhaus Quartet today can look back on a history of more than 200 years, because it continued its activity – renewing itself and rejuvenating from generation to generation – without interruption to the present. It is one of the oldest string quartet ensembles in the world and certainly the only one that has survived such a long period.

In addition to performing in-house, the Gewandhaus Quartet has performed with great success at chamber music festivals in many European countries, Japan, the United States and South America. In private audience, the four musicians gave concerts in front of the Japanese Emperor Akihito and the British heir apparent Prince Charles,

Since its inception, the Gewandhaus Quartet has championed the music of its contemporaries. In the past, works by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Robert Schumann, Max Bruch, Antonín Dvorák, Max Reger and Ferruccio Busoni were recently premiered by Olav Kröger, Günter Kochan, Ermano Maggini, Dietmar Hallmann and Günter Neubert. The ensemble was also able to add valuable new releases to the long series of recordings by the Gewandhaus Quartet.

The chamber music hall
in the „Neue Gewandhaus“ (inaugurated in 1884, destroyed in 1944) [/ caption]

The recording of Beethoven’s late quartets was described by the magazine Klassik heute as a „standard-setting interpretation“ and the Gewandhaus Quartet as „one of the best quartettos in the world“. The entire string quartet work of Beethoven is available in an attractive 10-CD box. This edition, the first complete recording of Beethoven’s string quartet in the history of the Gewandhaus Quartet, was awarded the annual prize of German Record Critics in the category Chamber Music in 2004. The recording of the three string quartets Op. 76 No. 2-4 by Joseph Haydn was awarded by the broadcaster „Bayern 4 Klassik“ with the „Hörempfehlung“ award. Furthermore, recordings with string quartets by Schumann and Mendelssohn, which was premiered by the Gewandhaus Quartet at the time, were released. On the occasion of his 200th birthday, the ensemble released an album with live recordings, including a historical recording of 1928. For the 200th birthday of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, the composer’s complete string quartet work was published.