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Take Four Guitar Quartet
Pia Grees Matthias Kläger Johan Fostier Luc Vanderborght 
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... "one gets the wonderful feeling of having come really close to the music itself..." (Badische Zeitung 4/97) |
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This statement from a concert review reflects the four guitarists'musical
attitude.
Their playing is characterized by technical brilliance, a vital and
fine-tuned sense of form, admirable expressiveness and a great subtlety
in the use of the right hand.
The guitarists Pia Grees, Johan Fostier, Matthias Kläger and Luc Vander Borght hail from Germany and Belgium, and have all studied with Alberto Ponce in Paris. The Take Four Guitar Quartet emerged in 1999 from the Tcherepnin Guitar Quartet, which was founded in 1994 and which undertook a concert tour to Cairo and Alexandria in 1998 at the invitation of the Egyptian Cultural Institute. The Quartet's programme comprises both original works and their own ingenious arrangements of well-known pieces. A project featuring tangos from Argentina (Piazzolla, Ginastera, Pujol etc.) and Europe (Stravinsky, Milhaud) and works especially composed for the quartet is planned for 2002 onwards. Pia Grees began her musical training with Professor Hans Gräf at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen in 1978. From 1987 to 1994 she studied with Professor Sonja Prunnbauer at the Freiburg College of Music. There she took her music teacher's diploma and graduated with distinction in 1994. Since 1998 Pia Grees has been an assistant lecturer at the Conservatoire Royal de Musique in Liège. She won first prizes at the Federal German Competition "Jugend Musiziert" in 1985 and at the International Competition for Guitar and String Quartet in Schweinfurt in 1990. In 1991 she won a prize at the sixth International Competition in Mettmann. After both she and Matthias Kläger had studied with Alberto Ponce in Paris in 1990/91, Pia Grees received numerous awards for her duo playing with M.Kläger. These include the second prize at the international Competition for Guitar Duos in Montélimar, a bursary from European trade and industry and a scholarship from the Baden-Württemberg Arts Foundation. As a duo, Pia Grees and Matthias Kläger have so far made three CDs, all of which have been greatly praised by reviewers. Matthias Kläger took up studies in 1984 with Ihsan Turnagoel and Professor Sonja Prunnbauer at the Freiburg College of Music. There he received his music teacher's diploma and graduated, and in 1994 received his soloist's diploma with distinction. From 1988 to 1992 he held a scholarship from the Studienstiftung des deutsche Volkes. He won the International Guitar Competition Freiburg/Strasbourg/Basle and the fifth International Guitar Competition in Mettmann. In 1992 he was awarded a scholarship from the German Music Competition in in the national selection of the "Konzerte Junger Künstler" series in the 1993/94 season. Matthias Kläger gives recitals and also performs in several chamber groupings, examples being the guitar duo with Pia Grees, with the mezzo-soprano Ruth Sandhoff and with the tenor Hans Jörg Mammel, with whom he recorded Schubert's Die Schöne Müllerin on CD for Ars Musici in 1999 He has been teaching the guitar at the College of Music and Drama in Munich since 1997. Luc Vander Borght began his training with Patrick Van Netelbosch and Annie Cattelain before taking up studies with Ilse and Nicolas Alfonso at the Brussels Conservatory, where he received the Diplôme Superieur for guitar and chamber music. He attended the master classes of Alberto Ponce in Portugal and Paris and of John Williams in Córdoba. In 1983 he won first prize in both guitar and chamber music at the National Belgian Competition, reached the finals of the International Competition for Guitar Duos in Berlin in 1987 and won the third prize at the International Guitar Competition in Carpentras in 1989. In addition to his activities as concert artist and arranger (several of his transcriptions are in the Take Four repertoire), he has held a chair at the Conservatoire Royal in Liège since 1994 and at the Académie Prince Rainier III in Monaco since 2001. |
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NEW PROGRAMME :
THE DEVILS'DANCE OR TANGO BESIDE ITSELF The devils's dance or tango beside itself revisited by the four guitarists of Take Four Guitar Quartet. Surprising journey towards dramatic Argentinian tango, celebrating Brazilian rhythms and tender irony of European classics. Energy, sensuality, humor feed this fire sonorous colours. |
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Repertoire
Henri Purcell 8 dances from "The Fairy Queen" Prelude - Rondeau Dance for the Followers or the Night Hornpipe - Entry Dance - Air Dance for the Fairies - Jig. Jean Sébastien Bach Sonate n°1 Allegro moderato - Adagio - Allegro Joseph Haydn Quatuor en ré Majeur Allegro - Minuetto alternamente - Adagio Minuetto alternamente - Presto Luigi Boccherini Introduction et Fandango George Gershwin Three Preludes Allegro ben ritmato e deciso Andante con moto e poco rubato Allegro ben ritmato e deciso |
Gabriel Fauré Pavane op. 50 Alexander Tcherepnin 10 Bagatelles Benjamin Britten Simple Symphony Boisterous bourrée - Playful pizzicato Sentimental saraband - Frolicsome finale John W. Duarte Concerto Democratico Ritmico - Adagio - Con brio Léo Brouwer Paisaje Cubano con Rumba Tran Vuong-Thach Quatuor pour quatre guitares Paul Desmond Take Five Giacomo Puccini Crisantemi Máximo Diego Pujol Grises y Soles … |