Cuarteto Casals

Since winning First Prizes at the London and Brahms-Hamburg competitions, Cuarteto Casals, which was founded in 1997 at the Escuela Reina Sofía in Madrid, has been a continual guest at the world’s most prestigious concert halls including Carnegie Hall, Philharmonie Berlin, Cité de la Musique Paris, Konzerthaus and Musikverein in Vienna, Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Suntory Hall among many others. Cuarteto Casals is approaching its 25th anniversary season which it will celebrate with a recording and series of concerts featuring the complete ‘Art of the Fugue’ by Johann Sebastian Bach and highlights of recent seasons include a cycle of the complete late Mozart quartets at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, John Adams ‘Absolute Jest’ with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra and tours throughout Europe and North America.

The quartet has compiled a substantial discography with the Harmonia Mundi label featuring repertoire ranging from lesser known Spanish composers Arriaga and Toldrá to Viennese classics Mozart, Haydn, Schubert and Brahms, through 20th Century greats Debussy, Ravel and Zemlinsky, as well as a live Blue-Ray recording of the complete Schubert quartets, for Neu Records. 

In 2020 Harmonia Mundi released to great critical acclaim the final instalment of Cuarteto Casals’ three-volume survey of the complete Beethoven quartets entitled ‘Inventions,’ ‘Revelations,’ and ‘Apotheosis,’ respectively. In the following year, the quartet released the second part of its recording of the six Mozart quartets dedicated to Haydn, a performance which Strad magazine described as ‘a poignant distillation of the music’s very essence.’

A prize from the prestigious Burletti-Buitoni Trust in London enabled the quartet to begin a collection of matching Baroque and Classical period bows which it uses for works from Purcell through Schubert, refining its ability to distinguish between diverse musical styles. In addition, the quartet has been profoundly influenced by its work with living composers, especially György Kurtág, and has given the world premiere of quartets written by leading Spanish composers, including a concerto for string quartet and orchestra by Francisco Coll, premiered with the Orquesta Nacional de España and commissions by Mauricio Sotelo, Benet Casablancas, Dahoud Salim, Lucio Amanti, Aureliano Cattaneo and Matan Porat.