From Vienna to Hollywood Hegel Quartet

• Fritz Kreisler (1875 - 1962): String Quartet in A Minor:
• 1 Kreisler: String Quartet in A Minor: I. Fantasia 08:25
• 2 Kreisler: String Quartet in A Minor: II. Scherzo 06:34
• 3 Kreisler: String Quartet in A Minor: III. Einleitung und Romanze 06:17
• 4 Kreisler: String Quartet in A Minor: IV. Finale 08:43
• Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897 - 1957): String Quartet No.3, Op. 34:
• 5 Korngold: String Quartet No.3, Op. 34: I. Allegro moderato 07:21
• 6 Korngold: String Quartet No.3, Op. 34: II. Scherzo 04:17
• 7 Korngold: String Quartet No.3, Op. 34: III. Sostenuto 08:52
• 8 Korngold: String Quartet No.3, Op. 34: IV. Finale 05:59
• Suite from Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing", Op. 11 (Version for String Quartet) [Excerpts]:
• 9 Korngold: Suite from Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing", Op. 11 (Version for String Quartet) [Excerpts]: II. Mädchen im Brautgemach 03:02
• 10 Korngold: Suite from Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing", Op. 11 (Version for String Quartet) [Excerpts]: III. Holzapfel und Schlehwein 02:34
• 11 Korngold: Suite from Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing", Op. 11 (Version for String Quartet) [Excerpts]: V. Hornpipe 02:06
• Total Runtime 01:04:10

Info for From Vienna to Hollywood

"One day we were all normal civilized men. Two or three days later our 'culture' was discarded like a cloak, and we were brutal and primal..."

This was Fritz Kreisler's account of his service as a reserve soldier in World War I in an article in the New York Times. After the war, in 1919, Kreisler wrote his String Quartet, a romantic, sentimental, humorous work that one would never suspect its author had experienced the traumas of war.

Erich Wolfgang Korngold owes his career as perhaps the greatest film music composer in history to World War II. It was a commission for the film Robin Hood that practically saved his life. An urgent telegram came from Max Reinhardt in Hollywood, persuading Korngold to take the next ship to America and thus escape the Holocaust.

Kreisler and Korngold arrived in America with a sad past that could have crushed the artist in them. Instead, Korngold turned film music into a high art and Kreisler took his career as a violinist to new heights. Their stories and their music give us hope and confidence that the human soul will triumph over violence and chaos.

The members of the Hegel Quartet grew up in different parts of the "New World": Australia, the United States, and Canada, and later studied independently in the "Old World." With the recording of works by the emigrated composers Fritz Kreisler and Erich Wolfgang Korngold, those who emigrated in the opposite direction want to repatriate their music in Europe, so to speak.

Hegel Quartet:
Natalie Chee, violin
Emily Körner, violin
Paul Pesthy, viola
Elena Cheah, cello

The Hegel Quartet
in its current formation since 2015, was founded by musicians whose artistic personalities were forged by years of solo, chamber and orchestral experience with world-renowned mentors and partners. Its unique approach to the quartet literature combines the power and diversity of an orchestral perspective with the flexibility and spontaneity of virtuosic soloists.

​ Each of their programmes is an exploration of an era, a zeitgeist or a thematic idea, yet their technically masterful interpretations transcend mere ideas and leave audiences transformed by the emotional depth of their performance.

Based in Stuttgart, the Hegel Quartet draws on a rich source of inspiration for its approach to interpretation: the mentors and collaborative partners of its members. Many of these are among the greatest musicians of our time: Murray Perahia, Anne Sophie Mutter, Trevor Pinnock, Lang Lang, Daniel Barenboim, Thomas Zehetmair, Andras Schiff, Robert Mann, David Soyer, Miklos Perenyi, Leonidas Kavakos, Nobuko Imai and Jean-Guihen Queyras among others. Their musical experiences began in such places as The Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute of Music as well as the Marlboro, Aspen and Ravinia music festivals.

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