The Bennewitz Quartet is a top chamber ensemble on the international stage, as evidenced not only by its victories at two prestigious competitions – in Osaka in 2005 and at the Premio Paolo Borciani in Italy in 2008 – but also by enthusiastic critical acclaim. As early as 2006, the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote: “…admirable, alongside the clear structuring of the music, were the beautifully coloured tone painting and the purity of intonation in the performance. Only very rarely does one experience harmonies sounding so skilfully and effectively shaped… Great art.”The ensemble has also received numerous awards on the domestic scene. In 2004, the Bennewitz Quartet was named laureate of the Czech Chamber Music Society of the Czech Philharmonic, and in 2019 the ensemble received the Classic Prague Award for Best Chamber Performance of the Year.
The quartet regularly performs at major Czech and international venues (Wigmore Hall London, Musikverein Vienna, Konzerthaus Berlin, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées Paris, The Frick Collection New York, Seoul Arts Center, Rudolfinum and others) and also appears at festivals including the Salzburg Festival, Lucerne Festival, Rheingau Music Festival, Kammermusikfest Lockenhaus, Dvořák Prague and Prague Spring. The ensemble has established artistic collaborations with outstanding musicians such as Alexander Melnikov, Vadim Gluzman, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Krzysztof Chorzelski, Danjulo Ishizaka, Pietro De Maria and others.
The Bennewitz Quartet takes particular pleasure in its activity on the domestic music scene. It greatly values its collaboration with the Czech Philharmonic and its former Chief Conductor Jiří Bělohlávek in performing Bohuslav Martinů’s Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra, as well as its collaboration with the Prague Symphony Orchestra FOK and conductor Michael Sanderling, with whom the quartet performed John Adams’s Absolute Jest. For Czech Television, the quartet recorded both of Leoš Janáček’s string quartets in the unique setting of the Villa Tugendhat, and Czech Radio regularly records important concerts by the ensemble.
The Bennewitz Quartet focuses on a distinctive selection of repertoire. In 2012 and 2015, it performed all six of Bartók’s quartets in a single evening at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino festival and in Uppsala, Sweden. In January 2014, it gave the world premiere of Slavomír Hořínka’s Songs of Immigrants at the Konzerthaus in Berlin. In 2019, it released a recording with Supraphon featuring works by persecuted Jewish composers (V. Ullmann, H. Krása, E. Schulhoff and P. Haas).
In the 2025/26 season, the Bennewitz Quartet has a rich programme of performances at major European festivals and venues, including the Schwetzingen Festival, Prague Spring, Concentus Moraviae, and a return to Hamburg’s Laeiszhalle. The ensemble will also appear again at the Dvořák Prague Festival, presenting one of its programmes focused on late string quartet works across different musical eras.
In Prague, the quartet will collaborate with leading Czech performers in performances of Beethoven’s Septet and Schubert’s Octet as part of the chamber series of the Prague Symphony Orchestra FOK, further expanding its activities in the field of chamber music. The highlight of the international season will be an extensive tour of the United States with concerts in several cities, including a recital at the prestigious Cosmos Club in Washington, D.C., representing another significant milestone in the ensemble’s growing international career.
Since 1998, the ensemble has borne the name of the violinist and director of the Prague Conservatory, Antonín Bennewitz (1833–1926), who played a key role in establishing the Czech violin school. Among his pupils were Otakar Ševčík, František Ondříček, as well as Karel Hoffmann, Josef Suk and Oskar Nedbal, whom he inspired to found the famous Czech Quartet.
The Bennewitz Quartet performs in the following line-up:
Jakub Fišer – violin
Štěpán Ježek – violin
Jiří Pinkas – viola
Štěpán Doležal – cello
For more info visit: www.bennewitzquartet.com
Photogallery
+4 photo
