“The tonal richness and melodic beauty of these two sextets are immediately riveting, especially when performed with the exuberant energy and insight of the Mandelring Quartet and their two additional players.”
BR Klassik – Bavarian Radio’s classical music station

“These players achieve an ideal blend of mind and heart.”
Fono Forum 

It was a pleasure to play quartets Mozart and Beethoven and the “trout quintet” with Marc-André Hamelin and Alois Posch at the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg. We are looking forward to a next collaboration…

On the US tour the Mandelring Quartett played two school concerts:

The Mandelring Quartet’s new Brahms CD has been released. The works are Brahms’ two string quintets. Roland Glassl plays the second viola.

A new concert series of the Mandelring Quartet starts in Munich in addition to the series in the Berlin Philharmonic.
Three concerts will take place in the Max-Joseph Hall of the Residence annually.
The dates:
15 Nov 2016, 19:30 Mandelring I – Brahms and the romantic period
31 Jan 2017, 19:30 Mandelring II – Brahms and contemporaries
30 May 2017, 19:30 Mandelring III – Brahms and the early modernism
A flyer with more informationen in German is to be found here.

With these words the Berliner Zeitung newspaper comments the rendition of the string quartet by Brahms in it’s review of the opening concert of this year’s Berlin Cycle of the Mandelring Quartet.
More…

The Mandelring Quartet’s recording of Mendelssohn’s complete chamber music for strings has received an International Classical Music Awards nomination. Further information can be found here.

The review of the opening concert of the Mandelring Quartet’s series in Neustadt/Weinstrasse started:
“The first concert of the Mandelring Quartet’s classics series was a delightful feast of chamber music of the most exquisite kind. The ovations after each individual item and at the end of the evening were overwhelmingly enthusiastic….” and continued:
“It was all impeccable: the totally homogeneous, pellucid ensemble and the perfectly calculated crafting of the melodic lines as the basis for an extremely lively, intensive dialogue in chamber music terms, the seamless transitions and the sudden dynamic changes, achieved with lightning reactions by all the players. As regards dynamics, to hear the Mandelring Quartet playing quietlyis just astonishing. They do not merely play more and more softly; it would be more accurate to say that this ensemble possesses an exceptionally wide spectrum of subtle tonal nuances and shades of colour, employed with the greatest delicacy.”
Die Rheinpfalz

A few days later the opening concert of the Mandelring Quartet’s Mendelssohn cycle in Mannheim was reviewed under the headline “Playing to the limits of expressivity”:
“The four players advance with great concentration and sensitivity to the limits of expressivity, whose energies remain perceptible even when the underlying simmering power occasionally gives way to a wonderful luminosity…. In those passages where beautiful material lies concealed in the score, the Mandelring’s players are both conscientious and inspired, and this is equally true in the rugged, Beethoven-inspired sudden plunges in mood that seem to testify to the threats inherent in life.”
Mannheimer Morgen

The 19th HAMBACHERMusikFEST, held on 3rd to 7th June this year, was once again a great success:
Perfect weather, all eight concerts sold out, this year for the first time a focus on the tango – with bandoneonist Marcelo Nisinman – and concerts broadcast on SWR and Deutschlandradio Kultur. The Festival’s jubilee celebrations, for the 20th year of the HAMBACHERMusikFEST, are scheduled for 25th to 29th May 2016.

After 16 years of an intensive collaboration which has been fulfilling both artistically and personally, viola player Roland Glassl has decided to shift his focus to other areas of his musical life as from the start of the 2015/16 season. In Andreas Willwohl the Mandelring Quartet has found a new partner who comes equipped with all the necessary qualities for the collaboration to continue in a positive manner as well as enriching the quartet experience with fresh input.

Andreas Willwohl was principal viola with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra from 2001 to 2012, and in 2011 was appointed professor at the Nuremberg Musikhochschule. Born in Erfurt, he studied in Weimar and Berlin with Alfred Lipka. He received important musical stimulus from Christoph Poppen and Kim Kashkashian and, as a member of the Faust Quartet, from Eberhard Feltz, the Amadeus Quartet, the Alban Berg Quartet and the La Salle Quartet. He has won prizes at numerous national and international competitions including the Joseph Joachim Chamber Music Competition in Weimar, the Charles Hennen Competition in Heerlen (Netherlands) and the Concours International de Bordeaux. Andreas Willwohl brings with him 14 years’ experience of quartet playing as well as an extensive knowledge of the repertoire.

The Mandelring Quartet looks forward to the coming years with the prospect of exciting projects such as the CD recording of the string quintets and sextets of Johannes Brahms, in which both viola players will be taking part. The two will also be heard together in the context of a Mendelssohn cycle in the Radial System, Berlin, on 13 and 14 November, in a concert that includes the composer’s string quintets. Highlights in the forward diary for the near future are the final concert of this year’s cycle in the Berlin Philharmonie on 29 May, the HAMBACHERMusikFEST in Neustadt/Weinstrasse from 3 to 7 June, and appearances at the Festival du Luberon (France) on 16 and 18 August.