The violist Nils Mönkemeyer, professor of the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich will be joining the Kelemen Quartet

In the 2018 performances of the concert series At home in the Liszt Academy, the Kelemen Quartet will be playing string quartets and the chamber music pieces of Johannes Brahms – born 185 years ago – side by side, drawing thrilling parallels between the various works. The initial composition of their first concert this year – which is third in line – will be Schubert’s Quartet Movement in C minor, the opening movement of an unfished chamber music piece.  Beethoven’s late String Quartet in A minor is a fundamental work of the chamber music repertoire, while Brahms’s String Quintet in G major was composed in mourning for one of his former students, Eduard Marxsen and some other close friends. Brahms, who was in his late fifties at the time, originally meant this chamber music piece to be his final composition, an ultimate, summarising piece of his oeuvre. Its tone, however, is by no means sorrowful; on the contrary, because of its jaunty melodies, a critique and friend of Brahms’s suggested it would be titled „Brahms in the Prater”.  In the closing movement of the composition, Brahms even used some Hungarian elements. This quintet will be performed by the Kelemen Quartet joined by Nils Mönkemeyer, professor of the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich. Despite his young age, the violist has been commended with a most profuse adulation, similarly to his partner ensemble, the Kelemen Quartet. It didn’t take him long to acquire international fame, which has also raised the profile of his instrument, the viola. Under his exclusive contract with Sony Classical, Mönkemeyer, his musical activity has won him critical acclaim and prestigious awards.

Nils Mönkemyer. Photo: Irène Zandel

Tickets for the concerts of the series At home in the Liszt Academy can also be purchased online:

Nils Mönkemeyer and the Kelemen Quartet – 16 January, 2018

Andreas Ottensamer and the Kelemen Quartet – 24 February, 2018

Aleksandar Madžar and the Kelemen Quartet – 12 April, 2018