Performers:
Meta4 String QuartetAntti Tikkanen (violin)
Minna Pensola (violin)
Atte Kilpeläinen (viola)
Tomas Djupsjöbacka (cello)
Programme:
Janáček. String Quartet No 2 (Intimate Letters)
Sally Beamish. Nine Fragments
Schumann. String Quartet No 1 in A minor op. 41/1
Their eye-catching manner of making music – playing on their feet, almost dancing along – has always awed me. Now they have reached even more breathtaking technical and substantive heights.
Richard Morrison, The Times, April 2023
Meta4, established in Finland in 2001, is one of the most successful string quartets at the international level. The four musicians are bound together by their close friendship, openness, curiosity, and diversity. They can be characterised by their “breathtaking vitality” (Badische Zeitung) and by providing ‘a transparent and rich colour of sound’ (Rondo). Meta4 performances are held in high regard as a breath of fresh air on chamber music stages thanks to their musical sense of humour, something which tends to be rare (Süddeutsche Zeitung).
Meta4 performs regularly in the large musical capitals and in important concert halls worldwide. In 2004, Meta4 won first place at the international Shostakovich Chamber Music Competition in Moscow, where they were also awarded the special prize for the best interpretation of Shostakovich. The quartet won first prize in 2007 at the international Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Competition in Vienna. In the same year, the Finnish minister of culture awarded Meta4 with the annual Finnish prize to recognise their international breakthrough.