The Paris based Quatuor Modigliani, founded in 2003, is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2023.
It is a regular guest at the world’s top venues and finest String Quartet and Chamber Music
series. In 2017 it was a special honor for the quartet to be the first string quartet ever performing
in the big hall of the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. In 2020, the quartet became artistic director of
the string quartet festival “Vibre! Quatuors à Bordeaux” as well as the renowned “The Bordeaux
International String Quartet Competition”; also, the quartet is the founder and artistic director of
the Saint-Paul-de-Vence Festival. From autumn 2023 onwards they are teaching the first String
Quartet class at the École Normale de Musique de Paris Alfred Cortot.
The 2023/2024 season will revolve around one big theme: Italy. Composer Elise Bertrand, born in
2000, has been commissioned by the quartet to write a work on an Italian theme, which will be
premiered in October 2023 at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. Other performances of the piece
will follow, including at Rockefeller University in New York, the Kölner Philharmonie, Heidelberger
Frühling, Konzerthus Stockholm and, of course, in Italy. In addition, the Quartet will perform
Tchaikovsky's "Souvenir de Florence": three concerts in Paris, Hohenems and Ludwigshafen are
planned, two of them with Veronika and Clemens Hagen, one with Marie Chilemme and Antoine
Lederlin.
Other highlights of the new season include a tour of Japan in September 2023, where Quatuor
Modigliani will perform the Chausson Concerto with violinist Sayaka Shoji and pianist Benjamin
Grosvenor, as well as a major project at the String Quartet Biennale in Paris in January 2024:
various young string quartets, such as the Leonkoro Quartet, Barbican Quartet or Quatuor Arod,
have accepted Quatuor Modigliani's invitation to perform Grieg's String Quartet in an arrangement
for chamber orchestra. Furthermore, the Quartet will perform e.g. in Zurich, Los Angeles, Brussels,
Cologne, Istanbul and Monaco.
The quartet has been recording for the Mirare label since 2008 and has released 12 award winning
CDs since. Their 9th album, “Portraits” was featured in the bestseller list 2-2019 (category
chamber music) at the “Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik”. In January 2022, the Quatuor
Modigliani has released its newest album: a recording of all 15 string quartets by Franz Schubert,
which was received enthusiastically by the international press. In April 2022, FonoForum wrote:
“In the steep crescendos, in the jagged major-minor conflicts or the wildly driving-out gestures
glows an extraordinary intensity, the music sometimes reaches a point where something seems
to tear apart.”
Thanks to the generosity and support of private sponsors, the Quatuor Modigliani plays on four
outstanding Italian instruments:
Amaury Coeytaux plays a 1715 violin by Stradivari,
Loïc Rio plays a 1780 violin by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini,
Laurent Marfaing plays a 1660 viola by Luigi Mariani,
François Kieffer plays a 1706 cello by Matteo Goffriller.
The Quatuor Modigliani also thanks SPEDIDAM for its help.