Merel Quartet

Mary Ellen Woodside, Violine
Edouard Mätzener, Violine
Alessandro D’Amico, Viola
Rafael Rosenfeld, Violoncello

„In an age remarkably rich in string quartets of high quality, the Merel Quartet is, in my
opinion, one of the very best.“  — Alfred Brendel
Commended for their stylistic awareness, maturity of expression and command of form, the
Merel Quartet have been captivating audiences since 2002.  An exceptionally communicative
quartet, the Merels have received unanimous praise:  „a young ensemble of wonderfully
devoted and tonally excedingly well-matched musicians“ writes the Wiener Zeitung (Vienna)
and the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Zürich) lauded the Merel Quartet for playing „…with utmost
expressivity and a subtle sense of form, tone and rhetoric“.

The Merel Quartet has performed extensively in Europe in venues like the Wigmore Hall,
Berlin Konzerthaus and Tonhalle Zürich, the Menuhin Festival Gstaad, Ittingen Whitsun
Concerts, Lucerne Festival, Salzburger Festspiele and Kunstfest Weimar.  Known for their
vivid performances, the quartet has excited audiences in Italy, France,  Germany, England,
Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland.
The Merel Quartet enjoys collaborations with artists like Juliane Banse, Ruth Ziesak, Jörg
Widmann, Denes Varjon, Diemut Poppen, Natalia Gutman, Nobuko Imai, Thomas Demenga,
and Alfred Brendel. The Merels perform an extensive repertoire spanning three centuries
from Bach and Purcell through to contemporary masters like Kurtag, Saariaho and Holliger.
They have commissioned and premiered works by David Philip Hefti, Martin Jaggi, Helena
Winkelman and Roland Moser.
Frequent live radio performances on Swiss Radio SRF2 and Radio Suisse Romande as well
as German Radio SWR2 have brought the Merel Quartet added recognition.  The quartet’s
debut album including works by Schumann, Janacek and award-winning Swiss composer
David Philip Hefti was praised as the „outstanding CD-Premier of a first-rate quartet“ (Neue
Zürich Zeitung am Sonntag).
Since 2015, the Merel Quartet founded and are Quartet in Residence of the chamber music
festival „Zwischentöne“ in Engelberg, Switzerland.  Guest artists have included Alfred
Brendel, Yura Lee, Ruth Ziesak, Juliane Banse, Denes Varjon, Reto Bieri, Robert
Hungerbühler and Marie-Claude Chappuis.
Performances of works by Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn on the Merel’s second album also
received high acclaim.  „Permeated with a feverish intensity, with close attention to detail and
exquisitely balanced illumination of the voices“  and „their sound, agile and transparent, with
a wide range of tonal colors, is irresistable“ writes Thomas Bopp of Das Orchester.  Cathy
Fuller, in her show „New and Notable Releases“ on Boston Public Radio WGBH  proclaimed
„This is a stunning recording, brimming with life and longing and sustained by an intelligent
sense of line.  The quartet’s devotion to bringing across each of the two quartets as complete
unfolding constructions makes the experience all the more poignant.  Gorgeous.“

Discography