Leonkoro Quartet

In the artificial language of Esperanto, »Leonkoro« means »Lionheart«, a reference to the famous children’s book of the same name by Astrid Lindgren about two courageous brothers. Because this quartet is framed on first violin and cello by brothers Jonathan and Lukas Schwarz. Together with violinist Amelie Wallner and violist Mayu Konoe, they studied under string quartet luminaries, such as Heime Müller from the Artemis Quartet and Günter Pichler from the Alban Berg Quartett. And did so successfully: within the briefest time, they scooped up prizes at the International String Quartet Competition at London’s Wigmore Hall, at the Concours International de Quatuor in Bordeaux and the MERITO String Quartet Award.

In their programme, they firstly contrast the final, very contemplative quartet by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with the youthful light-hearted early work of Paul Hindemith. Both composers were on the viola at their respective premiere – and so were still able to apply the finishing touch to their music. Mendelssohn gave the notes for his quartet to his brother, a passionate cellist, for his birthday. He was quite obviously happy about this and performed the work very successfully. To this day, the second movement, a true »song without words«, and the third movement, which evokes dancing fairies from Mendelssohn’s »A Midsummer Night’s Dream, are particularly delightful«.