The Brahms Society of Schleswig-Holstein is pleased to announce the awarding of the 2026 Brahms Prize, endowed with €10,000, to the Mandelring Quartet. Founded in 1983 by three very young siblings, the Schmidts, and a friend, the string quartet launched an international career after initial major competition successes, a career that continues unabated to this day. Tours on both sides of the Atlantic, from New York and Buenos Aires to Manila and Beijing, characterize their artistic life. Their Hambach Music Festival, founded in 1997, and the concert series at the Berlin Philharmonie, launched in 2010, are further testaments to their outstanding position in the music world.

A particular focus throughout their work is Brahms’ chamber music for strings, which the Mandelrings have performed in numerous cycles and recorded to great acclaim on CDs. The great Sir Yehudi Menuhin once described the string quartet as “perhaps Europe’s most important contribution to culture.” With the 2026 Brahms Prize, the Brahms Society pays tribute to one of the world’s most esteemed string quartet ensembles, which serves as an exemplary champion of this significant art form.

The Brahms Prize, endowed with €10,000, will be awarded on September 26, 2026, at 7:00 p.m. in St. Bartholomew’s Church in Wesselburen. It was in this church that Johannes Brahms’s father received his musical training. The Mandelring Quartet will perform a concert as part of the Brahms Prize ceremony.

Founded in 1987, the Brahms Society of Schleswig-Holstein has awarded the Brahms Prize annually since 1988 to outstanding individuals and performers of classical music. Past recipients include renowned artists such as Leonard Bernstein, Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Sabine Meyer, Christoph Eschenbach, Herbert Blomstedt, Midori Nagano, and Kent Nagano. Brahms Prize Award Ceremony 2026 to the Mandelring Quartet Saturday, September 26, 2026, 7:00 p.m. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. St. Bartholomew’s Church, Wesselburen

One of the past award ceremonies:

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg and Hohenems, the Mandelring Quartet has been invited to perform a jubilee concert with the same program that was performed by the Melos Quartet in 1976, the first year of the Schubertiade:
Schubert’s Quartet Movement in C minor, his “Rosamunde” Quartet, and “Death and the Maiden.” The Mandelring Quartet is delighted by this honor. The concert will take place on April 30, 2026, in the Markus-Sittikus-Saal in Hohenems and will be recorded by ORF and broadcast on its radio program Ö1 on May 5 at 7:30 p.m. Further information about the concert can be found here.

Here is a blog about the Mandelring Quartet’s concert in Vancouver.

C Mark Mushet

After a tour start with minor complications at check-in at Frankfurt Airport due to the extra seat for the cello, the Mandelring Quartet has arrived in Calgary. They have already experienced both spring-like temperatures and snow. Their first concert in the University of Calgary concert hall was sold out and ended with a standing ovation.

Antonín Dvořák’s ‘American’ chamber music works are the fruits of a happy, carefree time. And this is reflected in the music: colourful, vibrant, imbued with the musical and scenic impressions he gathered in the bustling metropolis of New York and during his summer holidays in rural Iowa.

Some of his most famous and beloved works were created in the United States, including the ‘American’ String Quartet, which uniquely combines landscape painting and emotional expression in chamber music. Unjustly overshadowed by this piece is the String Quintet in E flat major, also known as the ‘American’ Quintet: a colourful, masterfully crafted work in which Dvořák sought to capture the spirit of Native American music.

Both works have been among the Mandelring Quartett’s favourites for many years. However, the Humoresques, Op. 101 were a new discovery for the ensemble. Presented here in a first recording of an arrangement for string quartet, they include the immortal melody that the Comedian Harmonists made into a hit, titled “Eine kleine Frühlingsweise”.

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The program for the 28th Hambach Music Festival.
The flyer with the entire program for download as PDF.
Tickets are available here:
https://hambachermusikfest.de/tickets-kammermusik-festival/

On the occasion of the concert at the Berlin Philharmonie, which featured György Ligeti’s first quartet, “Métamorphoses nocturnes,” Nanette Schmidt recalls the quartet’s work with the composer:

A sunny morning in February 1995. We ring the doorbell of György Ligeti’s house on Möwenstraße in Hamburg. At first, nothing happens. Then the master opens the door – in his pajamas, his hair tousled, and his eyes deeply shaded. Apparently, he has forgotten our appointment. But he doesn’t let on and greets us warmly.

We unpack our instruments among stacks of sheet music and books that rise to the ceiling everywhere in the small apartment. Ligeti asks if we mind him having breakfast while he listens. He sits down at the table in front of us, the score of his second string quartet in front of him, and begins to eat his muesli. Which doesn’t stop him from listening very closely: After we’ve finished playing, he begins to work intensively with us.

Two hours pass in the blink of an eye, during which we delve deeply into the details of the work. Two hours in which it’s all about pushing the limits: glassy sounds, lightning-fast tempos, almost inaudible pianissimo, intense fortissimo… At the end, a warm farewell.

Unforgettable, this morning in Ligeti’s apartment!

© Wilfried Dechau

The concerts with the enormously committed State Philharmonic Orchestra of Rhineland-Palatinate on November 21, 22 and 23, 2024 in Neustadt, Kaiserslautern and Mannheim included Edward Elgar’s “Introduction and Allegro” and Stefan Heucke’s “Metamorphoses of a Movement by Franz Schubert”. It was not only a pleasure for us, but also an extraordinary experience to play as soloists with a large orchestra. Stefan Heucke’s fascinating work, which refers to the wonderful slow movement from Schubert’s last string quartet, was particularly moving.

C Klaus Landry

Concert in the crypt of the Speyer Cathedral. Part of the program was the string quintet by Anton Bruckner. The program and the scenic venue matched perfectly…

On Tuesday, April 9, 2024, a “couch conversation” with Nanette and Bernhard Schmidt takes place in the SWR Rhineland-Palatinate TV programme ‚Landesschau‘ (6:15 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.). The subject is the 40th birthday of the Mandelring Quartet. The report on this topic is scheduled for around 7:20 p.m.
The show can be found on television and as a live stream here:
https://www.ardmediathek.de/live/Y3JpZDovL3N3ci5kZS8xMzQ4MTIzMA
If you would like to view it later, you can do so here:
https://www.swrfernsehen.de/landesschau-rp/couchgespraeche/index.html