‘‘But the best concert – at least to my somewhat overstimulated mind – featured only string quartets…Meta4 delivered a mesmerising version of Haydn's wonderful D major Op 20 Quartet”.  The Guardian, September 2009               

                               

In this wonderful performance the music's epic scale emerged with unforced strength and grandeur.  Daily Telegraph, September 2007

 

The young Finnish string quartet Meta4 are rapidly establishing themselves as rising stars of the international chamber music scene.

 

Formed in 2001, Meta4 studied with Hatto Beyerle and Johannes Meissl in the European Chamber Music Academy (ECMA).  In 2004, they won First Prize at the International Shostakovich Quartet Competition in Moscow, and were also awarded a special prize for the best interpretation of a Shostakovich string quartet.  Since then, the quartet have enjoyed continued success and, in April 2007, won First Prize at the International Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Competition in Vienna. The Finnish Minister of Culture presented Meta4 with the "Finland Prize" as an encouragement for promising Finnish artists. They have been selected as a BBC New Generation Artist for two years starting in September 2008, and have already enjoyed performances at the City of London Music Festival, Cheltenham Music Festival, Manchester Mid-day Concerts Society as well as at the BBC PROMS.

 

Meta4’s busy schedule includes performances in Vienna (Mozart Saal), Milano (Sala Verdi), London (Wigmore Hall), Dortmund (Konzerthaus), Stockholm (Konserthuset), Madrid (Auditorio Nacional), and New York (Carnegie Hall). The quartet have also appeared at Kammermusikfest Lockenhaus, Kuhmo Chamber Music – where they are now the resident quartet - and Helsinki Festivals, and is the Artistic Director of the Oulunsalo Soi Music Festival.  This February saw the quartet perform concerts at European venues such as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels and again the Wigmore Hall.

 

Their repertoire encompasses works from Haydn to the most avant-garde pieces, including works by Finnish composers, some of which are dedicated to them.

 

All members of the quartet are very fortunate to play the following instruments: a Stradivarius violin from the 1690s on loan from the Sibelius Academy, a Bellosio violin (1770) on loan from the Local Cooperative Bank of Sysmä, a Guidantus viola (1737) on loan from the OKO and a rare Lorenzo Storioni cello, built in Cremona 1780. Meta4 has also received a grant from The Finnish Cultural Foundation.

 

March 2010

 

 

The young Finnish string quartet Meta4 was selected as a BBC New Generation Artist for two years starting in September 2008, and, consequently, is frequently appearing in venues and festivals accross the UK.  Formed in 2001, the quartet won First Prizes at both the International Shostakovich Quartet Competition in Moscow and the International Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Competition in Vienna.  

 

Meta4’s busy schedule includes performances in major venues mainly in Europe and the United States. They regularly appear in festivals abroad and in their home country, and have just been made Resident Quartet at the Kuhmo Chamber Music festival.

 

Their repertoire encompasses works from Haydn to the most avant-garde pieces, some of which are dedicated to them.  They are also strongly involved in the interpretation of Scandinavian works.  Their first commercial CD (Haydn op 55, 1-3) was recently released for Hänssler Classic.

 

All members of the quartet are very fortunate to play exceptional instruments including a Stradivarius violin, a Bellosio violin, a Guidantus viola (1737) and a rare Lorenzo Storioni cello, built in Cremona 1780.  

 

January 2010

 

 

" Meta4 a donné une version envoûtante du merveilleux quatuor en ré majeur op 20 de Haydn".
The Guardian, September 2009

Dans cette merveilleuse interprétation, le côté épique de la musique émergea avec une force et une grandeur naturelle, non forcée.
Daily Telegraph, September 2007

Le jeune quatuor d'origine finlandaise Meta4 (four) est en train de rapidement s'imposer comme l'un des ensembles les plus en vue sur la scène internationale.

Formé en 2001, les membres du quatuor Meta 4 étudièrent avec Hatto Beyerle et Johannes Meissl à l'European Chamber Music Academy (ECMA). En 2004, ils remportent le Premier Prix du Concours International de Quatuors à cordes Chostakovich à Moscou, lors duquel ils reçoivent également le Prix Spécial pour la meilleure interprétation d'un quatuor du maître russe. Depuis, Meta4 affirme son succès et, en avril 2007, obtient le Premier Prix du Concours International de musique de chambre Joseph Haydn à Vienne ainsi que le ‘Prix Finlandais' par le Ministère de la Culture en Finlande qui encourage les jeunes et talentueux musiciens. En septembre 2008, le quatuor est sélectionné par la BBC et ses membres deviennent ‘BBC New Generation Artists' pour une durée de deux ans.

La carrière internationale de Meta4 les porte aux quatre coins du monde: Vienna (Mozart Saal), Milano (Sala Verdi), London (Wigmore Hall), Paris (Théâtre de la Ville et Musée d'Orsay), Dortmund (Konzerthaus), Stockholm (Konserthuset), Madrid (Auditorio Nacional) et New York (Carnegie Hall). Le quatuor a été également l'invité du Kammermusikfest Lockenhau, des festivals de Kuhmo et d'Helsinki, et dirige le festival de musique de Oulunsalo en Finlande. En février 2010, le quatuor effectuera une tournée européenne pendant laquelle ils se produiront au Concertgebouw d'Amsterdam, Philharmonie de Bruxelles, Festival de musique de chambre d'Utrecht et Wigmore Hall de Londres ainsi qu'à Norwich, Sheffield (Music in the Round) et Belfast.

Leur répertoire très éclectique comprend des oeuvres de la période classique et romantique ainsi que des pièces les plus avant-garde, dont beaucoup ont été écrites spécialement pour eux. Ils s'intéressent tout particulièrement à la musique scandinave et interprètent les oeuvres de Sibelius, Grieg sans oublier les compositeurs vivants comme Esa-Pekka Salonen, Sallinen, Saariaho, Rasmussen, Puumala, Melartin, Kokkonen, Kaipainen, Holmström et Heiniö.

Tous les membres du quatuor ont la chance de jouer sur des instruments particulièrement remarquables : un Stradivarius des années 1690 prêté par l'Académie Sibelius, un Bellosio de 1770 de la Banque Coopérative Locale de Sysmä, un alto Guidantus daté 1737 appartenant à OKO et un violoncelle de Lorenzo Storioni. Meta4 a également reçu une bourse de la Fondation Culturelle finlandaise.

Octobre 2009

 

Nos biographies sont remises à jour régulièrement. Merci de bien vouloir détruire tout document marqué d'une date antérieure.

 

2009

Haydn: String Quartets Op 55 no 1-3
Hänssler Classic

B. Bartók	String Quartets Nr. 1, 5
L. van Beethoven	String Quartets op. 18/1, 18/4, op. 59/3 "Razumovsky", op. 95 "Quartetto serioso", op. 130/133 op. 131
L. Boccherini	String Quartet Op. 64, Guitar Quintet e minor, String Quintet D "Bird Sanctuary"
J. Brahms	String Quartets Nr. 1 & 2, Clarinet Quintet, Piano Quintet, String Quintet op. 111
B. Britten	3 Divertimenti
H. Dutilleux	String Quartet "Ainsí la nuit"
A. Dvorak	String Quartet nr. 12 "American"
K. Goeyvaerts	Seven Seals
J-F. Guerra	Bach is the name
J. Haydn	String Quartets op. 9/6, op. 20/2, op. 50/5, op. 54/3, op. 55/1-3, op. 64/2, op. 76/3, op. 76/4
Mikko Heiniö	Piano Quintet
Carita Holmström	String Quartet
K. A. Hartmann	Kammerkonzert for clarinet, string quartet and chamber orchestra
L. Janacek	String Quartet Nr. 1 "Kreutzer-sonata" String Quartet Nr. 2 "Intimate letters"
J. Kaipainen	String Quartet Nr. 5
J. Kokkonen	String Quartet Nr. 3
E. W. Korngold	String Sextet
J. Kuusisto	Play III op.21
G. Ligeti	String Quartet Nr. 1 "Metamorphoses Nocturnes" String Quartet nr. 2
Erkki Melartin	String Quartets Nr. 1, Nr. 3
F. Mendelssohn -Bartholdy	String quartet op. 44/2, 4 pieces op. 81, Octet op. 20
W. A. Mozart	String Quartets KV 157, KV 387, KV 458, KV 575, Adagio und Fuge Clarinet Quintet
A. Piazzolla	Five Tango Sensations
Veli-Matti Puumala	String Quartet (1994), Capriccio for string sextet (2000)
S. Rasmussen	String Quartets nr. 1 & 2
M. Ravel	String Quartet F
Kaija Saariaho	"Nymphea" for string quartet and live-electronics "Terra Memoria" for string quartet (2007)
Aulis Sallinen	String Quartet Nr. 3 "Some Aspects of Peltoniemi Hintrik´s Funeral March" (1969), Introduction and Tango for Piano Quintet Chamber Music VI for string quartet and string orchestra
A. Schnittke	String Quartet Nr. 3 (1983)
F. Schubert	"Quartettsatz" c minor, String Quartets "Death and the Maiden", G Major D887, String Quintet C Major D 956
R. Schumann	String Quartets Nr. 1, 3, Piano Quintet
A. Schönberg	Verklärte Nacht op. 4 String Quartet nr. 2
D. Shostakovich	String Quartets Nr. 3, Nr. 4, Nr. 7 Piano Quintet
Jean Sibelius	Fuuga Martin Wegeliukselle (1889), String quartet in E flat (1885), String Quartet "Voces Intimae" op. 56, Piano quintet g minor
B. Smetana	String Quartet Nr. 1 "Aus meinem Leben"
A. Webern	Langsamer Satz, Piano Quintet String Quartet Op. 28

 

 

Wigmore Hall - Bartok and Schubert

“…you can almost hear their body language: straining towards each other, constantly renewing the energy of their repartee… Meta4 maximised the frisson factor of this spiritual winter journey, setting up dry, spectral tremolandi like a chill wind. Antti Tikkanen’s first violin glanced off each fragment of melody like high-latitude sun off ice. And, with no hint of slowing in that hesitant second theme, the players maintained a delicate and uneasy tension to the end.”

Proms Cadogan Hall

‘‘But the best concert – at least to my somewhat overstimulated mind – featured only string quartets… Meta4 delivered a mesmerising version of Haydn's wonderful D major Op 20 Quartet”.

The Guardian, September 2009

‘‘Their performance of Haydn’s op.20/4 got things off to a cracking start. The players obviously loved every minute of this early work, and this was a very thoughtful and enjoyable account. They fully understood the humour of the piece and gave the first movement a cohesion many have missed, welding the slow repeated chordal idea with the more energetic sections, and making a whole of the structure. It was delightful. The slow movement with its various groupings of duo and trio was well placed and the rhythms of the zingarese minuet had a real kick to them. The finale was a race, but it never became hectic, and their handling of the “take it or leave it” ending was a real joy. Super stuff.’’

musicweb, September 2009

Cheltenham Festival - Pittville Pump Room

‘‘The first of these was a new quintet comprising pianist Ingrid Fliter plus a young Finnish quartet calling themselves Meta4: in their hands, Schumann’s Piano Quintet came over with unusual warmth and vividness’’

The Independent on Sunday, July 2009

City of London Music Festival - St Vedast Alias Foster

“This was one of COLF 2009's finest hours, actually nearer an hour and a quarter. One of the best string quartets before the public… They are supersensitive, with impeccable intonation, achieved by careful, unusually prolonged tuning. Their energy is quite uncommon, and this was a perfectly planned programme.”

Musical pointers, July 2009

SIBELIUS' Voces Intimae - Wigmore Hall, 20 September 2007

"Meta4 was outstanding. Its performance of Sibelius's only mature string quartet, written aged 43 and one of the greatest string quartets ever written, was breathtaking and authoritative - monumental. Throughout the first movement, there was absolute mastery in giving space to single sounds and isolated chords, with exactly the right and most telling timbre, sonority and volume on each occasion. Great, broken chunks of sound stood alone, in stark eternity. The spareness of the Dorian mode was alive and electric. And yet - so skilfully - Meta4 also made a living chain of these isolated blocks, giving flow to the music. With a dynamic stateliness they delineated the measured structure of the movement's progress towards the quiet, utter finality of those last sonorous chords. The savagery of the scherzo was fear-making. Meta4 gave the long Adagio a deeply-charged, heartfelt sonority, appropriate to Beethoven's thanks-giving in his Opus 132. The last two movements had hectic vigour and an increasingly harsh vitality, excitement uncannily recalling Walton and Shostakovich. The unnamed players comprising Meta4 played as one, giving the impression that every note, every bar, had been judiciously and sympathetically considered, with empathy, with rapport, with a burning feel for Sibelius's idiom."

Classical Source, October 2007

"This was a well-focused reading of a sometimes gnomic work, in which fluid melody falls into fragments and halting utterances. Meta4 followed a confident course through these shifting musical currents, always sensitive to Sibelius's highly concentrated trains of thought. The playing throughout was noteworthy for its technical finesse and faultless ensemble (the intonation of the unison playing was impeccable). The strange, otherworldly central Adagio in particular was magical, a blend of cold clarity and fervour."

The Strad, December 2007

"We heard that voice loud and clear in the same concert, when the young Finnish quartet Meta4 played Sibelius's string quartet Voces Intimae. Despite the title, the piece strives to be a full-scale symphony, and in this wonderful performance the music's epic scale emerged with unforced strength and grandeur."

The Daily Telegraph, September 2007

"The second half was given over to Beethoven's Opus 131 String Quartet in which this exceptionally gifted ensemble came into their own. This was a performance of real quality, a reading of depth and intensity in which the music was able to speak directly to us without eccentricities. This Quartet certainly deserves an international career, which I am sure they are capable of fulfilling. Let us see them again in London soon."

Robert Matthew-Walker, Musical Opinion, November - December 2006