ARTIST PROFILE: Vogler Quartet

Tim Vogler | Frank Reinecke | Stefan Fehlandt | Stephan Forck

Individuality that unfolds within the shared experience – this is probably the secret of the Vogler Quartet, which has been performing with the same lineup since 1985.

Winning first prize at the 1986 Evian String Quartet Competition brought the East German ensemble from the Berlin Hanns Eisler School of Music international acclaim just one year after its founding. Eberhard Feltz, György Kurtág, and the LaSalle Quartet, especially Walter Levin, became formative mentors.

Chamber music luminaries such as Lynn Harrell, Bernard Greenhouse, and Menahem Pressler were among the musical partners, as were Jörg Widmann, David Orlowsky, and Daniel Müller-Schott. The extensive repertoire of "classical" quartet literature, from Haydn to the Second Viennese School, is complemented by lesser-known or unusual works (such as Morton Feldman's five-hour quartet) and contemporary music, often including world premieres.

The four musicians feel equally at home in Europe's music centers as in North America, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. The quartet members teach as professors at universities in Frankfurt, Leipzig, Stuttgart, and Berlin, and give masterclasses in Europe and overseas.

The Vogler Quartet's discography includes works by Brahms, Schumann, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Reger, Schulhoff, and K.A. Hartmann, as well as clarinet quintets by Mozart and Golijov with David Orlowsky, and a tango album with bandoneonist Marcelo Nisinman. Their CD "Paris Days – Berlin Nights" with Ute Lemper and Stefan Malzew received a Grammy nomination. Currently, they are recording a complete set of Dvořák's quartets for the cpo label (four double CDs and the Piano Quintet Op. 81 have already been released).

To mark the 30th anniversary, a book entitled “A World on Sixteen Strings – Conversations with the Vogler Quartet” (Berenberg Verlag) and a CD box set with live recordings of the anniversary season of the concert hall series featuring works by Henze, Kagel, Weill, Widmann, Respighi, Abril and Chausson were published.

In 2025, the Vogler Quartet celebrated its 40th anniversary with the same lineup – a unique achievement in the quartet scene!