Quatuor Danel

The Quatuor Danel was founded in 1991 and has operated in its current formation since cellist Yovan Markovitch joined the group in 2014. Their packed concert diary takes them to all major concert stages worldwide and over the past 30 years they have made a series of ground-breaking CD recordings. Their musical partners include major artists such as Leif Ove Andsnes, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Alexander Melnikov, Adrien La Marca, Clemens Hagen and the Borodin Quartet. The group is known for their bold, focused interpretations of the string quartet cycles of Beethoven, Shostakovich and Weinberg. Their lively and fresh vision on the traditional quartet repertoire subsequently earned them rave reviews from the public and the press.

Russian composers occupy a special place in Quatuor Danel’s repertoire. They championed Shostakovich’ once unknown string quartets and recorded the complete cycle for Fuga Libera. Danel was the first quartet to record another great string quartet cycle of the twentieth century: Mieczysław Weinberg’s 17 quartets. Their performance in Manchester and Utrecht was the first ever live interpretation of the complete Weinberg cycle worldwide. In addition to a double cycle at the Wigmore Hall the quartet has performed the Weinberg and Shostakovich cycles at the Philharmonie de Paris, Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, ElbPhilharmonie Hamburg, Phillips Collection Washington and in Japan and Taiwan.

Quatuor Danel is a quartet in residence at the University of Manchester, Great Britain.

The quartet’s latest CD release contained César Franck’s string quartet and piano quintet as well as a Tchaikovsky edition with all three quartets and the sextet ‘Souvenir de Florence’. Both CDs were released with CPO. In April 2024 the live recording of the complete Shostakovich string quartets – recorded at the Gewandhaus Leipzig – will be released on label Accentus.

2024-2025 brings the Quatuor Danel to Leipzig again, firstly for the performance and recording of Prokofiev’s string quartets, but also for the presentation of all of Shostakovich’ string quartets during a large-scale commemoration for the 50th anniversary of the composer’s death. The quartet tours Japan, the United States, Taiwan and South Korea and is artist in residence at London’s Wigmore Hall. In Europe they can also be heard in Amsterdam, Linz, Lisbon, Copenhagen, Gohrisch, Madrid and many other important stages and festivals. Musical partners for that season will, amongst others be François Frédéric Guy, Quatuor Arod and Marianna Shirinyan.