Artis-Quartet Wien & Janis Vakarelis

Vienna’s Artis-Quartet are an impressively multifaceted and exuberantly eclectic chamber ensemble which, apart from performing concerts around the world which often include world premiers of works dedicated to it by contemporary composers, has put together a fine discography of over 30 albums and continues to win a stream of awards. Their performances have spotlit every aspect of Austrian music from the 18th century and Pleyel to the 20th and Egon Wellesz, but their primary focus remains major Austrian composers like Franz Schubert and the members of the Second Viennese School.

In many ways a typical 20th-century composer, Dimitris Terzakis has incorporated every contemporary trend in his music, while adding elements of an earlier tradition—in his case, that of Byzantium. His third string quartet was commissioned by the city of Witten, and premiered by the Leonardo Quartet on 23 April 1983 as part of the city’s Days for New Chamber Music. On 20 February 2012, the internationally celebrated quartet will be performing the work on Greek soil and reminding us of its great power.

The Greek virtuoso pianist Janis Vakarelis has been playing with the Artis-Quartet for over a decade in concerts in both Greece and Central Europe. His first public performance of the Brahms Quintet with the quartet at the Musikverein in Vienna, where the Artis Quartet has played an annual cycle of concerts since 1988, was a critical triumph.