Between classical music and jazz with Quatuor Ébène 

Quatuor Ébène’s dazzling international career dates back to 2004, when the ensemble won the prestigious ARD competition in Munich and the number of performances suddenly climbed to one hundred and thirty concerts a year. “The way fragrances seem to transition into sounds, echoes resonate from the depths of space,” wrote the prestigious Süddeutsche Zeitung about them in 2023.

Quatuor Ébène’s distinctive features include, among other things, a completely natural movement between genres, which the Prague Spring Festival audience will be able to witness in Raphaël Merlin‘s composition entitled Tetrhappy, oscillating between classical music and jazz. It will be performed in its Czech premiere at the Rudolfinum just a short time after its world premiere in Paris. You will also hear Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky‘s romantic third string quartet, which the composer dedicated to the Czech violinist Ferdinand Laub.

But a definite highlight will be Ludwig van Beethoven‘s first string quartet, recorded by Quatuor Ébène as part of the unique Beethoven Around the World project, which took the ensemble to six continents in 2020: Australia, Asia, North and South America, Africa and Europe. “This tour has transformed us into human beings,” says Quatuor Ébène second violinist Gabriel Le Magadure. “Our lives began to be counted into those before and those after Beethoven.”