Home

Our 2010--2011
Season

Past Seasons:
2009--2010
2008--2009
2007--2008
2006--2007
2005--2006
2004--2005

Subscriptions
and Tickets

Contact Us

The Swiss Stradivari Foundation Habisreutinger lent four exceptional Stradivari instruments to four outstanding young musicians from England, Austria, Poland, and Switzerland, who formed the Stradivari Quartet, based in Zurich. The Quartet followed a stunning hometown debut concert with a European tour. In autumn 2008 the Stradivari recorded a double CD of Haydn's Opus 50 string quartets, which will be released by Sony BMG in late 2009 for the Haydn anniversary.

Born in 1974 in Poland, Mr. Niziol began his musical education at the age of four. At 17 he won 1st prize in the international Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition. Five more first prizes in international competitions followed, including the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud in Paris and the Eurovision in Brussels. Since 2003 he has been leader of the Zurich Opera Orchestra. Mr. Niziol plays the AUREA violin. The "golden violin" comes from Stradivari's "Golden Period" (ca. 1700-1720). During this period the master's genius reached maturity and he made his best instruments, including the Aurea, which was made in 1715. Presumably Stradivari proportioned this violin according to the "Golden Section" (sectio aurea), the name given to the special mathematical relationship according to which the smaller part relates to the larger part as the larger part relates to the whole. It was according to this geometric model that he calculated the optimum position of the F-holes to produce the best sound. The result was this slim, maneuverable violin which is easy to play and shines with incomparable fullness of tone.

Mr. Wang holds the position of concertmaster of the Zurich Opera House Orchestra. Formerly he was concertmaster of the UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra (Switzerland), and guest concertmaster of the Macao Orchestra. He studied at the University of Music and the Performing Arts in Vienna with Gerhard Schulz of the Alban Berg Quartet. He was a prize-winner at many violin and chamber music competitions in Austria, Italy and China. Mr. Wang plays the KING GEORGE violin. This valuable violin dates from 1710 and is named after its owner King George III. In 1800 he gave it to a Scottish officer, whose motto was "Not without my Stradivari," for he worshipped this instrument. A cavalryman under Wellington, he fell in the Battle of Waterloo on 18 July 1815, but the violin survived undamaged in his horse's saddle bags. Its next owner was Bernhard Molique, a pupil of Spohr, followed by his student Baron von Dreyfuss and then the Berlin violin expert August Riechers. The German-American dealer Emil Hermann bought it from Professor Meyer and then sold it to a buyer in Tokyo. Before the outbreak of World War II the King George violin found its way back to Berlin by an undocumented route.

Born in 1965 in England, Mr. Greenlees first made a name for himself as a nine-year-old boy soprano soloist with St. John's College Choir Cambridge. He studied violin and viola with David Takeno at the Guildhall School of Music in London, winning prizes at viola and chamber music competitions. From 1993 to 2003 he was solo viola with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and since 2003 has been deputy solo viola with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra. Mr. Greenlees plays the GIBSON viola. It was surely with a trembling hand that in 1734 Antonio Stradivari -- already ninety years old -- gave what was presumably his last contralto viola (which was smaller than his tenor violas) a craftsmanlike and artistic vitality which made it an instrument of unusual tone colour and beauty. This is perhaps the most priceless of the instruments of his "Golden Period." The Gibson demonstrates an absolute perfection, and is in excellent condition today, more than 250 years after it was made. It is the only viola in which the back of the sound box was "slab cut" (tangential cut). Most violins and violas were "quarter sawn" (radial cut). This is how things have remained until the present day. This jewel of an instrument is named after the Englishman George Alfred Gibson (1849-1924), who was Professor of Violin at the Royal Academy and a famous soloist, and who was also the viola player in the world-famous "Joachim Quartet."

Born in 1974 in Switzerland, Ms. Weber began playing the cello at the age of four, when the instrument was bigger than she was. At a very young age she played in the family quartet and in the "Ars Amata Zürich", then formed the "Amar Quartet" with her sister, winning 1st prize at Bubenreuth, 2nd prize at Geneva and Graz, and the Millennium Award in London. Ms. Weber plays the BONAMY DOBREE -- SUGGIA cello. The English scholar Bonamy Dobree owned this 1717 Stradivari cello. The moving story of this valuable instrument actually begins with the mysterious, diva-like Portuguese cellist Guilhermina Suggia (1885-1950), who when playing her favourite cello combined technical perfection and interpretative feeling, enchanting her public with her playing as well as her warmth and depth of tone. Outwardly extravagant and lively, inwardly intelligent and warm-hearted, Suggia lived many lives: in Paris as the pupil and lover of Pablo Casals, in London as a "Grande Dame" and cosmopolitan figure, in Portugal as the yearning woman seeking her homeland. After Suggia's death the cello was sold and the proceeds used to provide grants for students at the Royal Academy of Music.