A big hit with the public, the Polish Apollon Musagète Quartett regularly plays at the Bozar Centre for Fine Arts. Selected to be the ECHO Rising Star 2010, before being crowned BBC New Generation Artist 2012 and winning the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award 2014, Musagète Quartett has, since then, trod the boards of great international concert halls. This time, they plan to show us the breadth of their talents by offering up a programme which is, first and foremost, an homage to the poster boy of the Renaissance WACŁAW DE SZAMOTUŁY, followed by the famous quartet Dissonances by Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART, before tackling, along with the Meccore String Quartet, the first of the two quartets composed by Karol SZYMANOWSKI, the composer who best represents the modernist Poland of the inter-war years.

PROGRAMME
C’est déjà le crépuscule, Wacław z Szamotuł
String Quartet n° 19, KV 465, “Dissonances”, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
String Quartet n° 1, op. 37, Karol Szymanowski

PRACTICAL INFORMATION
>>> Centre for Fine Arts BOZAR (Rue Ravenstein 23, 1000 Brussels), salle Henry Le Boeuf – see map
>>> 25 November 2018 – 15h
>>> 12€ (tickets are available online)

+++ On the site of the Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels

Apollon Musagète Quartett 
The Apollon Musagete Quartet was founded in Vienna in 2006 by four Poles: Paweł Zalejski (violin), Bartosz Zachłod (violin), Piotr Szumiel (viola) and Piotr Skweres (cello). The group’s unusual name is an homage to a ballet by Igor Stravinsky dating from 1927/28 in which the god Apollon dances with three muses who symbolise, in turn, poetry, rhetoric and dance. Taking their cue from this god and ‘conductor of muses’, the Apollon Musagete Quartet aims to bring together all art forms.
In 2008, the group’s reputation was enhanced by the award of a first prize and three special prizes at the Munich ARD International Music Competition. This prize was yet another to add to an already impressive trophy cabinet, containing prizes won primarily in Austria and Italy, where they performed to great success. The group also played at London’s Wigmore Hall and the Berlin Philharmonic Hall. The group finds its musical inspiration not just in the works which it plays, but also in the many collaborators with whom it so enjoys playing. The musicians with whom the group has played to date include: Peter Cropper, Anner Bylsma, Giulano Carmignola and Ferenz Rados. In Poland, the quartet has been aided by the award of a grant from the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. The first disc by the Apollon Musagete Quartet was released by OEHMS Classics in 2009. It includes works by Haydn, Szymanowski and Brahms. The quartet does not shy away from breaking out of the classical music world: you can hear them on the latest album by Tori Amos, Night of Hunters.

In 2013, the Apollon Musagète Quartett had the honour of inaugurating WITOLD LUTOSŁAWSKI YEAR in Belgium, where they played the Polish composer’s String quartet (2013 marked the centenary of the composer’s birth). The Antwerp concert hall DeSingel points out that listening to Lusławki’s String Quartet is “an extraordinary experience, not least because the music is never the same from one version to the next. Indeed, Lutosławski grants musicians such freedom when it comes to playing the notes that the balance amongst the four instruments is different each time”. In order to add an extra layer to its homage, the Apollon Musagète Quartett has composed an original piece with the eloquent title Multitude in memoriam W. Lutosławski.

The Apollon Musagète Quartett has played a number of times in Belgium:
– Flagey (Brussels), 24 April 2017 (Puccini, Arensky, Sibelius, Grieg) – see our site 
– deSingel (Antwerp), 2 February 2013 (Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Janáček, Lutoslawski, Apollon Musagète Quartett) – see our site 
– Handelsbeurs Concertzaal (Ghent), 17 January 2012 (Mendelssohn, Stravinski, Prokofiev, Chostakovitch) – see our site 
– Palais des Beaux-Arts (Bozar Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels), 16 January 2018 (Schubert, ter Veldhuis) – see our site 

Concert organized in the framework of The Centenary of Regaining Independence of the Republic of Poland.
Coproduction : Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels (BOZAR).

Links

•  Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles: http://www.bozar.be
•  Centenaire du retour à l’indépendance: https://niepodlegla.gov.pl/