Modigliani Quartet
Philippe Bernhard - violin
Laurent Marfaing - viola
Loïc Rio - violin
François Kieffer - cello

Biography

The Modigliani Quartet was formed in 2003 and first attracted international attention in 2004 by winning the Frits Philips String Quartet competition in Eindhoven. The Quartet took First Prize at the Vittorio Rimbotti competition in Florence in 2005 and won the highly prestigious Young Concert Artists Auditions in New York in 2006 allowing them to regularly tour in the US since then.

It has since become one of the world’s most sought after chamber ensembles. The quartet’s recent or future engagements include Vienna’s Musikverein, Lucerne Festival, Schwartzenberg’s Schubertiade,  Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Wigmore Hall, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris’ Cité de la Musique, Luxembourg’s Philharmonie , Brussel’s Palais des Beaux-Arts, Gstaad Menuhin Festival or the Auditorium du Louvre alongside the Emerson, Jerusalem, and Takács Quartets. The quartet also performed in venues like Carnegie Hall,  Kennedy Center, Théâtre du Châtelet, LSO St Luke’s, La Fenice , the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, the Rheingau Festival, Tokyo’s Kioi Hall.

The Quartet was selected for the ECHO Rising Star tour of Europe’s most prestigious halls for the season 2011-12. The same year they will tour in Australia, the United-States, China and Japan.

Amongst the distinguished artists with whom the quartet has collaborated are Michel Dalberto, Abdel Rahman El Bacha, Anne Gastinel, Gary Hoffman, Eric Le Sage, Paul Meyer, Jean-Frédéric Neuburger, Sabine Meyer, or Sol Gabetta.

The quartet released its third CD in September 2010 (Mendelssohn opus 13, opus 80 and 81/ Mirare). The CD already received elated reviews and was CD of the Month of the German Magazine FonoForum. Their previous Haydn CD, released in 2008 had also gained several prizes and awards including the “Grand Prix du Disque de l’Académie Charles Cros”.

After winning a First Prize at the  Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, the Modigliani Quartet studied with the Ysaÿe Quartet in Paris, attended masterclasses by Walter Levin and György Kurtág, and then had the opportunity to work with the Artemis Quartet at the Universität der Künste in Berlin.

Thanks to the generosity and support of private sponsors, the Modigliani quartet plays on outstanding Italian instruments:

Philippe Bernhard plays a 1780 violin by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini.
Loic Rio plays a 1734 violin by Alessandro Gagliano .
Laurent Marfaing plays a 1590 viola by Luigi Mariani.
François Kieffer plays a 1706 cello by Matteo Goffriller (former”Warburg") .

Website: http://www.modiglianiquartet.com/

Video: Mendelssohn Quartet Opus 80 in f minor
1st movement
2nd movement
3rd movement
4th movement

Press Extracts

“a gripping and persuasive performance, played with awesome individual and communal brilliance”
The Strad, January 2010

“The range of dynamics and colour is wide, and the rhythmic tension and drive—in the Finale of Haydn’s Rider Quartet and elsewhere—superb. They also give the music space, in the Rider’s visionary slow movement and in the deceptively leisurely opening of the Sunrise Quartet.”
The Sunday Times, July 2008

“The Modigliani played with animated zest and an underlying tension which built up momentum to frenetic climaxes, highlighting the taut pizzicatos in the second movement and the languid exchange of the main theme in the third.”
The New York Times, February 2008

“With its immense musical gifts, this foursome has the potential to someday reach the top echelon.”
The Washington Post, February 2007

“The Birmingham Chamber Music Society's season opened with one of the world’s great established string quartets. It closed Sunday with what could rank among the finest of the next generation. The Modigliani Quartet have forged a rare combination of depth, enthusiasm and near-faultless technique.”
The Birmingham News, February 2008

“The Modigliani is not the kind of quartet, common today, that lures the listener into a bath of warm, sumptuous string tone, or that dazzles with pyrotechnics. Instead it plays with a Gallic cool, supported by a solid, thoroughly unified technique.”
The New York Times, February 2007

“Haydn and Ravel seemed to live again with the outstanding Modigliani quartet’s unforgettable flame.”
Le Monde de la Musique, November 2006

“The Modiglaini Quartet played Kurtag’s 12 Microludes marvellously, followed by a dazzling interpretation of Ravel’s Quartet, showing great maturity.”
l’Humanité, August 2006

“Throughout this recording the young musicians are the perfect example of how a promising flower can bloom into a wonderful fruit: pulpy, juicy, extremely tasty and fragrant.”
Res Musica, April 2006

“Amazing musical maturity and cohesion... an excellent understanding of the harmonic density of works and a great polyphonic limpidness… an outstanding sense of rhythm.”
Classica Répertoire, May 2006