Bio­graphy

 Tim Vogler, viol­in
Frank Rei­necke, viol­in
Stefan Feh­landt, viola
Stephan For­ck, viol­on­cello
 
 

THE VOGLER QUAR­TET Indi­vidu­al­ity find­ing har­mo­ni­ous expres­sion in ensemble –this has to be the quint­essence of the Vogler Quar­tet, an ensemble which can claim the dis­tinc­tion of retain­ing its ori­gin­al mem­ber­ship since its form­a­tion in 1985. With an intel­li­gent approach to the genre of cham­ber music, a bril­liant play­ing tech­nique, inter­pret­ive tact­ful­ness and a vibrant ensemble spir­it, Tim Vogler, Frank Rei­necke, Stefan Feh­landt and Stephan For­ck have cre­ated a unique string quar­tet sound which con­sist­ently offers new insights into the genre.

This East Ger­man ensemble had its begin­nings at the Hanns Eisler Music­al Academy in Ber­lin. It became inter­na­tion­ally renowned in 1986 only one year after its found­a­tion as the first prize win­ner of the fam­ous Evi­an string quar­tet com­pet­i­tion. Eber­hard Feltz, György Kur­tág and the LaS­alle Quar­tet, not­ably Wal­ter Lev­in, sub­sequently sponsored the quar­tet and became influ­en­tial mentors.

The ensemble’s extens­ive rep­er­toire of clas­sic­al pieces from Haydn to Bartók as well as the Second Vien­nese School is com­ple­men­ted by both con­tem­por­ary and less known works like the monu­ment­al five-hours quar­tet by Mor­ton Feld­man or a Rihm cycle with the Arditti Quar­tet on the occa­sion of Expo 2000. Among the world premi­eres are com­pos­i­tions by Jörg Wid­man, Maur­i­cio Kagel, Ian Wilson, Frank Michael Bey­er and Sven-Ingo Koch.

The Vogler Quar­tet act­ively broadens its field by col­lab­or­at­ing with renowned artists like Lynn Har­rell, James Lev­ine, Bern­ard Green­house, Bor­is Per­ga­menschikow and Mena­hem Pressler and music­al part­ners as Dav­id Orlowsky, Daniel Müller-Schott or Ute Lemper.

They feel just as com­fort­able in the European music cen­ters as in North Amer­ica, Japan, Aus­tralia and New Zea­l­and. Since 1993 the quar­tet has organ­ised its own con­cert series at Konzer­thaus Berlin.The four musi­cians have been the artist­ic dir­ect­ors of the Sligo Inter­na­tion­al Cham­ber Music Fest­iv­al (Ire­land) since 2000 as well as of the Kam­mer­musiktage Hom­burg (Saar) in Ger­many since 2002.

All of them have pro­fess­or­ships at the con­ser­vat­or­ies in Frank­furt, Leipzig, Stut­tgart and Ber­lin and give mas­ter classes in Europe and overseas.

The Vogler Quartet’s dis­co­graphy fea­tures a num­ber of highly praised record­ings of Brahms, Schu­mann, Schubert, Mendels­sohn, Reger, Schul­hoff, K.A. Hart­mann, cla­ri­net quin­tets by Moz­art and Goli­jov with Dav­id Orlowsky as well as a tango cd with the ban­do­neon play­er Mar­celo Nisin­man. The album ‚Par­is Days – Ber­lin Nights‘ with Ute Lem­per and Stefan Malzew was nom­in­ated for a Grammy award. 

The quar­tet is cur­rently record­ing the com­plete quar­tets by Dvorák for cpo. Four double cds and the piano quin­tet op. 81 have already been released.
At the begin­ning of 2021 two new albums were released for Capric­cio with works by Georgi Catoire (piano quin­tet op. 28 and piano quar­tet op. 31 with Oliv­er Triendl) and Grigori Frid (“Phädra” op. 78,1 and piano quin­tet op. 72 with Elis­aveta Blu­mina). Both record­ings were nom­in­ated for the Inter­na­tion­al Music Award. Both were nom­in­ated for the Inter­na­tion­al Music Awards ICMA.

To mark its 30th anniversary, a book entitled „Eine Welt auf sechzehn Saiten – Gespräche mit dem Vogler Quar­tett“ (“A World on Six­teen Strings — Con­ver­sa­tions with the Vogler Quar­tet”) and a CD box with live record­ings of the con­cert house series’ anniversary sea­son with works by Hen­ze, Kagel, Weill, Wid­mann, Respighi, Abril and Chaus­son were published.

In 2025, the ensemble will be cel­eb­rat­ing its 40th anniversary with an unchanged line-up — this is unique in the scene.

Bio­graphy 2024/25