"An absolute triumph. Their playing has everything you could possibly wish for."
- BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
photo: Felix Broede
LATEST NEWS
2025 will mark 30 years for the Jerusalem Quartet. Hard to believe it has been so long.
This very special season has turned out to be a full one. In addition to our regular touring, with visits to some of our favorites places and audiences, we will present the full cycle of Dmitri Shostakovich's 15 string quartets. The response from concert presenters has been overwhelming, and the result is 9 cycles in 2025 and early 2026. Look for us in London, Zurich, Amsterdam, Cologne, Portland (OR), Cleveland (OH), St. Paul (MN), and São Paulo (Brazil).
2025 will also mark the start of our relationship with the BIS label. Our first release will include Shostakovich Quartets Nos. 2,7, and 10. Look for this release in early 2025. Other releases are already planned, and we are excited for this new journey.
We hope you will join us at one of our performances.
“Passion, precision, warmth, a gold blend: these are the trademarks of this excellent Israeli string quartet.”
- THE TIMES, LONDON
Since the ensemble’s founding in 1993 and subsequent 1996 debut, the four Israeli musicians have embarked on a journey of growth and maturation. This experience has resulted in a wide repertoire and stunning depth of expression, which carries on the string quartet tradition in a unique manner. The ensemble has found its core in a warm, full, human sound and an egalitarian balance between high and low voices. This approach allows the Quartet to maintain a healthy relationship between individual expression and a transparent and respectful presentation of the composer’s work. It is also the drive and motivation for the continuing refinement of its interpretations of the classical repertoire as well as exploration of new epochs.
SHOSTAKOVICH QUARTET NO.2 - WALTZ
UPCOMING CONCERTS
FEATURED ALBUM
BARTOK: STRING QUARTETS NOS. 1, 3, AND 5
From the opening funeral dirge of the First Quartet to the incandescent frenzy that concludes the Fifth, this disc offers a genuine panorama of the Bartókian universe. A world unto itself, constantly stamped with the heritage of Hungarian folklore so dear to the composer: two years after a first volume devoted to the even-numbered works (nos. 2, 4 and 6), the musicians of the Jerusalem Quartet expertly complete their recording of a key cycle of modern chamber music, a musical saga drawn on the scale of a lifetime!
"The Jerusalem Quartet's ear-opening performance of [Debussy's] only string quartet (paired with Ravel's) is the most edgy, enthralling, propulsive, frequently wrenching yet magnetically involving account of the piece I've ever heard."
- BAY AREA REPORTER
“...what distinguishes this particular quartet is its sense of refinement and natural feeling for line, coupled with a fever-pitch intensity and commitment to the music. Musical electricity may be unfathomable, but one thing is for sure - they have it.”
- THE STRAD