Our university’s cooperation with the Munich-based classical recording label Solo Musica represents the latest step toward rendering the outstanding achievements of mdw students even more visible and audible. Solo Musica’s distribution of mdw white label promotional recordings makes it possible to present particularly qualified mdw-trained musicians on the classical music market while also serving the missions of career promotion and the achievement of greater visibility for the mdw itself.
The first such project to have been realised is a recording with the Chaos String Quartet, whose members present themselves as intriguing, multifaceted, and mature performers. These four musicians, who studied under Johannes Meissl at the mdw, have won numerous awards together at more than a handful of international competitions (including the ARD Competition in Munich, the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition, the International Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Competition, the Bad Tölz International String Quartet Competition, and the Bartók World Competition in Budapest) and recently completed the European Joint Master’s Degree Programme ECMAster as an mdw ensemble with a brilliant master’s degree project on “Chaos” as a theme. For this quartet’s international members, who were also selected by the BBC as 2023–2025 New Generation Artists, the name “Chaos” as anything but a gag. It much rather serves to express their highly ambitious, artistically and academically grounded creative approach to interpretation and performance.
This debut recording on the new mdw white label, now released by Solo Musica and available both online and as a CD, contains interpretations of Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet in F Minor op. 20/5, Hob. III:35, Ligeti’s String Quartet No. 1 (Metamorphoses Nocturnes), and Fanny Hensel’s String Quartet in E–flat Major that have already elicited glowing reviews from the specialist press. All those responsible are delighted that the present recording, as the pilot project of this new cooperation, has proven such a success.
“Haydn-Ligeti-Hensel” by the Chaos String Quartet is available here.
