Since its formation in 2002, the Merel Quartet, resident in Zürich, Switzerland, has received unanimous praise. Music critics repeatedly and enthusiastically refer to their precision ensemble playing and persuasive interpretations. The Neue Zürcher Zeitung lauded the Merel Quartet for playing “with utmost expressivity and a subtle sense of form, tone and rhetoric." (2007)

The quartet has performed extensively in Europe in such prestigious venues as the Zurich Tonhalle and Wigmore Hall, and in important festivals such as the Salzburger Festspiele, Lucerne Festival, Kunstfest Weimar, the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad, the „Omaggio a Palladio’ series in Vicenza, and are regular guests of András Schiff and Heinz Holliger at the Ittingen Whitsun Festival. In addition, the quartet has collaborated with such artists as Juliana Banse, Ruth Ziesak, Dénes Várjon, Nobuko Imai, Thomas Demenga, Heinz Holliger, Christoph Schiller, the Stamitz Quartet, and the Panocha Quartet, among others.

Acclaimed performances and radio recordings of the Merel Quartet from repertoire spanning Bach to Schoenberg, as well as Ph(r)asen by award-winning Swiss composer David Phillip Hefti, attest to the quartet’s versatility. In addition to its busy performance schedule, the quartet recently recorded a CD with works of Schumann, Janacek, and Hefti.


QUOTES:

Alfred Brendel
"It is with great pleasure that I recommend the Merel Quartet, as the latest, most welcome addition to the podiums of the chamber music world. I wish the quartet the recognition they deserve."

Bernard Haitink
"...each individual is a musician of the highest technical ability, but what is more impressive is how they create a completely homogenous and harmonious ensemble. Their honest approach to the works convinces me as intelligent and mature. If this all sounds too serious, allow me to emphasize the group’s joyful and youthful playing..."