Janáček’s first string quartet was inspired by Tolstoy’s short story, Kreutzer Sonata. The piece’s vivid imagery, dynamic shifts in mood, and formal and technical innovations faithfully reflect the literary source’s passionate style, emotional language, and narration. Although we do not know whether Schubert was similarly inspired by a reading experience when composing his String Quartet in G major, Op. 161, the music’s nuances, colors, bold modulations, and sharp emotional outbursts could have drawn from the realm of literature just as well. His genius as a song composer spurred Schubert to develop distinctive, unusual forms and narratives in every area of his oeuvre, as well as to make free, evocative use of keys and harmonies – a characteristic that is also evident in his final quartet.

The members of the Korossy Quartet began working together in 2018. The following year, they won the Leó Weiner National Chamber Music Competition, organized by the Liszt Academy of Music Budapest, and in 2021, the ensemble was awarded five special prizes at the International Bartók Competition. Their work is supported by renowned artists, including Eberhard Feltz, Barnabás Kelemen, András Keller, Katalin Kokas, György Pauk, Günter Pichler, András Schiff, and Gábor Takács-Nagy. In addition to performing at Hungary’s largest concert venues, they have participated in international festivals such as the Lockenhaus Kammermusikfest, Kamara.hu, Arcus Temporum, Bartók Spring, Festival Academy Budapest, and the Mahler Festival in Toblach. The BMC audience may also be already familiar with the quartet: in the fall of 2023, they launched a series to perform all of Béla Bartók’s string quartets at the Concert Hall, while during the 2025/26 season, they played Kurtág’s works at the Kurtág100 festival, and later gave a joint concert with Zoltán Fejérvári. In the 2026/27 season, they are launching a new series titled Refractions, which, over the course of three concerts, will shed light on various facets of the genre through pieces rarely associated with each other.

Further concerts in this series:

2027.02.26. Korossy Quartet: Refractions 3/2.
2027.05.21. Korossy Quartet: Refractions 3/3.