Breakup: Top quartet adds two new players

Breakup: Top quartet adds two new players

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norman lebrecht

January 08, 2019

The Artemis Quartet has chosen violinist Suyoen Kim and cellist Harriet Krijgh to replace two departing members – the American violinist Anthea Kreston and cellist Eckart Runge, the quartet’s last founding member.

Kim, 31, German born, has been concertmaster of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin for the past year.

Krijgh, 27, who is Dutch, will release her debut recording on Deutsche Grammophon later this year.

The remaining members are violinist Vineta Sareika and violist Gregor Sigl. The reconstituted quartet will play its 30th anniversary concerts later this year.

Comments

  • Pierre Fontenelle says:

    That’s great for Krijgh! She’s a phenomenal cellist!

    • Michael says:

      She is, but one wonders how she would have time on her schedule for this considering her blossoming international solo career.

      • Pierre Fontenelle says:

        She had been taking a break from her solo career if I remember right, tendonitis and all. I imagine she’s consciously switching from a purely solo career to a chamber music / String Quartet career.

  • boringfileclerk says:

    Good luck to the mostly Artemis Quartet!

  • Dennis says:

    What entity exactly is celebrating its 30th anniversary, given that no founding members remain and they just replaced half their membership (obviously not the first time they’ve had lineup changes)?

    I guess “Artemis Quartet” is just a corporate brand name/label at this point for whichever group of 4 people happen to be available at any given time, rather than a cohesive quartet with a distinct identity, like say the Alban Berg Quartet or the Smetana Quartet who were together for over 40 years.

    • Bruce says:

      And when no members of Szell’s Cleveland Orchestra are left (I actually don’t know if there are any still playing), will it just be some group of random audition winners who have nothing in common with that fabled group but a prestigious corporate brand?

      • Dennis says:

        An orchestra of some 100 or so people changing some members over the years is quite a different thing to a much smaller and more intimate quartet routinely replacing members.

        But you are correct to say that is is no longer “Szell’s Cleveland Orchestra”, it’s just the Cleveland Orchestra. Szell’s been dead for nearly 50 years…time to move on, man.

  • Esfir ross says:

    Borodin quartet today ran under famous label but same repertoire.

  • Fiorelle says:

    I’m confused. Did the quartet break up, as says in the headline, or are they continuing, and with two new members? English not my native tongue, please explain?

  • Terence says:

    As the old joke goes:

    “Established quartet seeks first violinist, violist and cellist.”

  • Dave T says:

    Ehh- more like the Art-semis Quartet.

  • Karl says:

    Kim plays more in the mold of Frank Peter Zimmermann than Christian Tetzlaff or Antje Weithaas. An interesting choice for the Artemis.

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