Signum Quartett

On Tour

September 23, 2026 | Frankfurt
September 24, 2026 | Frankfurt
November 03, 2026 | Ludwigshafen (with Daniel Ottensamer)

Janaury 17, 2027 | Leer

Intimacy

With this immersive programme, the Signum Quartett sets out to explore the legacy of Janáček.

Watch and Listen

As the resident ensemble at the 2026 Schwetzingen SWR Festival, the Signum Quartet’s concerts were recorded and can now be listened to in the mediathek:

Works by Schubert, Haydn and Adès
Leoš Janáčeks true love
Classical and rock with the Signum Quartet

New Releases

VISIONARY STRING QUARTETS BY JANÁČEK & KAPRÁLOVÁ
Signum Quartett presents the album the earth trembled, recontextualising the visionary string quartets by Leoš Janáček alongside the striking String Quartet Op. 8 by Vítězslava Kaprálová. Janáček’s lifelong engagement with folk traditions shaped these works profoundly; he lays bare an extraordinary spectrum of feeling, exposing the innermost reaches of his psyche with an almost unsettling immediacy, music in which the earth really does tremble. Set against this, Kaprálová’s quartet offers balance: a strikingly youthful yet assured voice emerging from the same cultural milieu, opening an equally compelling emotional range. Interspersed throughout are fragments of Janáček’s folk song arrangements and intimate miniatures from his album for Kamila Stösslová, whose absent voice subtly haunts the programme, weaving a fragile, imagined narrative between the works.

Listen here.

Schubert Trilogy

Aus der Ferne | Ins stille Land | Lebensmuth
The Signum Quartet succeeds here in demonstrating an impressive connection between Schubert’s songs and his string quartets.

That this develops into a dialogue between Schubert’s dual composer souls of lied and chamber music to which one does not merely listen, but by which one is spellbound and enthralled, is thanks to the highly concentrated, creative, versatile and emotional playing of the four musicians.
Rondo | CD Ins stille Land | Guido Fischer | November 28, 2020

… an affecting new way of playing and listening to Schubert … As if they were singers themselves, the quartet in the transcriptions plays with a sensitivity and attention that seems to carry over to their playing of the quartets. …Prepare for a deeply moving experience.
Strings magazine| CD Ins stille Land | Laurence Vittes | March-April 2021

Projects

Unfinished, Yet Complete – A Homage to Franz Schubert

The Signum Quartet and Dominique Horwitz blend theatre and music to explore the mystery of Franz Schubert’s work. His music still moves us today – filled with melancholy, depth, and solace. The evening seeks the “unfinished completeness” and the man Schubert himself. The program approaches Schubert tentatively: through questions, contradictions, and fears. His letters and music – from delicate soundscapes to eruptive power – come alive. Songs like “Gretchen am Spinnrade” and “Die schöne Müllerin” take on a new, theatrical dimension. Dominique Horwitz interprets Schubert freely, beyond tradition.

Schubert’s music guides us through life – stirring, enigmatic, sometimes dark, sometimes luminous. An evening that rediscovers Schubert anew.

Reviews

The Signum Quartet offers world-class
This is how you want string quartets to play! Shaped in every motivic fibre, eloquently articulated, precisely phrased, agogically structured, dynamically differentiated, as well as gesturally pointed to question, answer, agreement, counter-speech. That is world class. This is how one would like to hear string quartets played by the Signum Quartet.
Kölner Stadtanzeiger | Philharmonie Köln | Rainer Nonnenmann | October 24th, 2024