Melos Quartet

The Melos Quartet, also called the Melos Quartet Stuttgart, is a German string quartet musical ensemble based in Stuttgart, that was in existence from 1965 to 2005.

They should not be confused with two other chamber groups of similar name, the Melos Ensemble or the Melos Art Ensemble (an Italian group).

Personnel

Membership dates

Violin 1:

• Wilhelm Melcher (1940–2005)

Violin 2:

• Gerhard Voss (b.1939), from 1965 to 1993
• Ida Bieler, from 1993 to 2005

Viola:

• Hermann Voss (b.1934)

Violoncello:

• Peter Buck (b.1937)

Origins and activities

The Melos Quartet Stuttgart was founded in October 1965 by four young musicians who were members of well-known German chamber orchestras. The name Melos, an ancient Greek word for music which is the root of the word melody, was suggested by the combination of the names Melcher and Voss, to indicate their purpose as distinct individuals seeking musical harmony together.

The leader, Wilhelm Melcher of Hamburg (1940–2005), studied with Erich Röhn, and with Pina Carmirelli and Arrigo Pelliccia of the Boccherini Quintet, in Rome. He won the International Chamber Music Competition at Venice in 1962, and became concertmaster of the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra from 1963. The two Voss brothers, Gerhard (b. 1939) and Hermann (b. 1934), are Rhinelanders: they studied with Sandor Végh, and Hermann continued as a pupil of Ulrich Koch's. He became solo violist of the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra. The cellist Peter Buck (b. 1937) is Swabian and studied at Düsseldorf and in Freiburg, and with Ludwig Hoelscher in Stuttgart. Gerhard Voss and Peter Buck were both members of the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra.

In 1966 the group gave its first recital: won a prize in the Villa-Lobos-Quartet competition at Rio de Janeiro: represented West Germany at the World Congress of Jeuness Musicale in Paris; and, most influentially for their future success, won the 'Prix Américain' as the best quartet, at the Geneva International Congress of Musical Performance. Then, giving up their orchestral positions to concentrate solely on the Quartet, they began touring in 1967 and in 1968 performed in seven European countries. In 1969 they gave 105 concerts throughout the world, and had their first television appearance.

In 1969 the group signed a five-year contract with the D.G.G. record company, and spent 25 days that year making recordings for radio and commercial release. They obtained the first prize of the String Quartet Foundation sponsored by German industry in 1970, and in 1972 they entered into a further contract with D.G.G. for complete recordings of the Schubert and Cherubini string quartets.

After this they undertook tours around the world, in North and South America, Africa, all European countries, the Near East and Far East, getting as far as Novosibirsk in Russia. They became the first West German musicians to play in Volgograd (Stalingrad), in 1973, in concerts commemorating the events of 1943. By 1975, when the Schubert integral recordings were completed and issued, the Quartet also held a teaching post at the Stuttgart School of Music.

By 1975 the group had built up a repertoire of 120 works, including the complete Beethoven, Schubert, Cherubini and Bartók quartets, and works by Haydn, Mozart, Brahms, Hugo Wolf, Pfitzner, Verdi, Donizetti, Debussy, Smetana, Kodály, Janáček, Hindemith, Alban Berg, Gian Francesco Malipiero, Witold Lutosławski, Milko Kelemen, Wittinger and Horvath. They made a conscious decision to have a wide-ranging repertoire in order to avoid getting stuck to any particular period.

For most of the Schubert recordings the instruments were a cello by Francesco Ruggieri (1682), a viola by Carlo Ferdinando Landolfi (18th century), first violin by Domenico Montagnana (1731) and second violin by Carlo Annibale Tononi (18th century).

They were planning a farewell tour in 2005, when Wilhelm Melcher, the first violinist died unexpectedly just before his 65th birthday.

Among others, the Quartet collaborated with Arthur Rubinstein, Mstislav Rostropovich, Georg Solti, Narciso Yepes and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.

Recordings

They recorded a performance of the Schubert String Quintet with Mstislav Rostropovich as the second cellist on the Deutsche Grammophon label. They recorded a 3CD set of Mozart's Haydn-Quartette, the complete Mendelssohn, Luigi Cherubini and schubert String Quartets and the complete Beethoven Quartet Cycle for their 25th Anniversary as a Limited Edition Set for DGG label. With violist Franz Beyer, they recorded Mozart's complete String Quintets, again for the yellow label. Most of these recordings are now out of print and can be difficult to find.

Complete discography, LPs & CDs

• Ludwig van Beethoven - Die frühen Streichquartette: Op.18 No.1-6 / Op.14 No.1 (3CD - DGG 410971-2, 1983)

• Ludwig van Beethoven - Die mittleren Streichquartette: Op.59 No.1-3 / Op.74 / Op.95 (3CD - DGG 415342-1, 1984)

• Ludwig van Beethoven - Die späten Streichquartette: Op.127 / Op.130-133 / Op.135 (3CD - DGG 415676-1, 1984)

• Luigi Boccherini - Quintets for Guitar and Strings: No.4 in D G.448 "Fandango" / No.9 in C, G.453 -"La ritirata di Madrid" / No.7 in E minor, G.451 (Narciso Yepes, guitar; CD - DGG 477 7112 8)

• Johannes Brahms - Complete String Quartets: No.1, in C minor Op.51/1 / No.2, in A minor Op.51/2 / No.3, in B flat major Op.67 (3CD - DGG 423670, 1986/87; + Schumann)

• Johannes Brahms - String Quintet No.2 in G major, Op.111 / Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op.115 (Gérard Caussé, 2. viola / Michel Portal, clarinet; CD - Harmonia Mundi 1951349)

• Anton Bruckner - String Quintet in F major, WAB.112 / *Intermezzo, in D minor, WAB.113 (Enrique Santiago, 2. viola; LP - Intercord, 1975 + Janáček, Smetana, Wolf; CD - Harmonia Mundi 1951421, *rec: May 1992)

• Luigi Cherubini - Complete String Quartets: No.1, in E flat major (1814) / No.2, in C major (1829) / No.3, in D minor (1834) / No.4, in E major (1835) / No.5, in F major (1835) / No.6, in A minor (1837) (3CD - DGG 429 1852 8)

• Claude Debussy - String Quartet in G minor, Op.10, L.85 (LP - DGG 419750, + Ravel; CD - DGG 479 0529 5, + Ravel & Kodály)

• Antonín Dvorák - String Quartet No.9, in D minor, Op.34/B.75 / Piano Quintet in A major, Op.81/B.155 / String Quintet No.3 (for 2 violas) in E flat major "American", Op.97/B.180 / String Quartet No.12, in F major "American", Op.96/B.179 (w. Ida Bieler, 2. violin; Karl Engel, piano; Gérard Caussé, 2. viola; 2CD - Harmonia Mundi 901671, 1995)

• Franz Joseph Haydn - String Quartets: No.62, in C major "Emperor", Op.76/3, H.III/77 / No.63, in B-flat major "Sunrise", Op.76/4, H.III/78 / No.32, in C major "Bird", Op.33/3, H.III/39 (LP - Intercord; CD - EMI, 1988)

• Leos Janáček - String Quartets: No.1 "Kreutzer Sonata", JW.7/8 / No.2 "Listy duverné"/"Intimate Letters", JW.7/13 (LP - Intercord, 1973 + Smetana, Bruckner, Wolf; CD - Harmonia Mundi, 1992)

• Milko Kelemen - "Sonnets" (1987) for String Quartet (CD - BIS 742; rec: 02/17/1988)

• Zoltán Kodály - String Quartet No.2, Op.10 (CD - DGG 479 0529 5, + Ravel & Debussy)

• Felix Mendelssohn - Complete String Quartets: No.0, in E flat major oh.op. / No.1 in E flat major, Op.12 / No.2, in A minor, Op.13 / No.3, in D, Op.44/1 / No.4, in E minor, Op.44/2 / No.5, in E flat major, Op.44/3 / No.6, in F minor, Op.80 / Four Pieces for String Quartet, Op.81 (3CD - DGG 415 8832 6)

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - 6 Haydn-Quartets: No.14, in G major K.387 "Spring" / No.15, in D minor K.421 (417b) / No.16, in E-flat major K.428 (421b) / No.17, in B-flat major K.458 "Hunt" / No.18, in A major K.464 / No.19, in C major K.465 "Dissonance" (3CD - DGG 415870)

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Hoffmeister & 3 Prussian-Quartets: No.20, in D Major "Hoffmeister" K.499 / No.21, in D Major K.575 / No.22, in B-flat major K.589 / No.23, in F major K.590 (2CD - DGG 2531 320, rec: 1981)

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Clarinet Quintet in A major "Stadler", K.581 / String Quartet No.20, in D Major "Hoffmeister" K.499 / Fugues (5) for String Quartet (transcribed from Bach's Well Tempered Clavier, Book 2, Nos. 2,5,7,8,9) K.405 (Julia Rayson, clarinet; CD - EMI 5725662, 1997)

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Piano Quartets: No.1, in G minor K.478 / No.2, in E flat major K.493 (Georg Solti, piano; CD - Decca 417190)

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Complete String Quintets: No.1, in B flat major, K.174 / No.2, in C minor K.406 (516b) / No.3, in C major K.515 / No.4, in G minor K.516 / No.5, in D major K.593 / No.6, in E-flat major K.614 (Franz Beyer (1-4) and Piero Farulli (5-6), 2. viola; 3CD - DGG, 1987/91)

• Maurice Ravel - String Quartet in F major, M.35 (LP - DGG 419750, + Debussy; CD - DGG 479 0529 5, + Debussy & Kodály)

• Franz Schubert - Complete String Quartets: No.1, D.18 / No.2, in C major D.32 / No.3, in B flat major D.36 / No.4, in C major D.46 / No.5, in B flat major D.68 / No.6, in D major D.74 / No.7, in D major D.94 / Quartet Movement, in C minor D.103 / No.8, in B flat major D.112 (Op.Post.168) / No.9, in G minor D.173 / No.10, in E flat D.87 / No.11, in E major D.353 (op.post.125 No.2) / No.12, in C minor D.703 "Quartettsatz" / No.13, in A minor D.804 "Rosamunde" / No.14, in D minor D.810 "Death and the Maiden" / No.15, in G D.887 (6CD - DGG 463 1512 5)

• Franz Schubert - String Quintet in C major, D.956 (Mstislav Rostropovich, 2. cello; CD - DGG 477 6357 4)

• Robert Schumann - Complete String Quartets: No.1, in A minor Op.41/1 / No.2, in F major Op.41/2 / No.3, in A major Op.41/3 (3CD - DGG 423670, 1986/87; + Brahms)

• Jean Sibelius - String Quartet in D minor, Op.56 Voces intimae (w. Ida Bieler, 2. violin; CD - Harmonia Mundi 901671, 1995 + Verdi)

• Bedřich Smetana - String Quartet No.1, in E minor "From my Life" (‘Z mého života) (LP - Intercord, 1973 + Janáček, Bruckner, Wolf)

• Giuseppe Verdi - String Quartet in E minor (w. Ida Bieler, 2. violin; CD - Harmonia Mundi, 1995 + Sibelius)

• Hugo Wolf - Italian Serenade in G minor, for String Quartet (LP - Intercord, 1975; + Janáček, Smetana, Bruckner)

• Melos Quartett Recital 1979 "Live": Franz Joseph Haydn String Quartet No.64, in D major Op.76 No.5/Hob.III:79 "Erdödy" / Wolfgang Fortner String Quartet No.4 (1975) / Maurice Ravel String Quartet in F major, M.35 (CD - Hänssler Classic 93716)