The group, which began performing professionally in 1981, will play its last concert in Tokyo on 7 July
The Hagen Quartet will conclude its 45-year career on 7 July, with a performance at Toppan Hall, Tokyo. The concert will be the last in the group’s farewell tour, which has already taken in the Bergen International Festival, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and the Mozarteum University Salzburg, where the players have been long-time professors and mentors.
The quartet has been performing professionally since 1981, although the four Hagen siblings – Angelika (violin), Lukas (violin), Veronika (viola) and Clemens (cello) – made their unofficial debut at a youth music competition in 1975. Angelika left the quartet in 1982, to be replaced by Annette Bik; in 1987 she was succeeded by Rainer Schmidt., who has remained with the quartet ever since. The quartet has made more than 50 recordings together and has received awards including the Diapason d’Or, the Choc de Classica, and the ECHO Klassik Prize.
The programme for the Hagen’s final performance will include quartets by Schubert and Schumann as well as Schumann’s Piano Quintet in E flat major, where the quartet will be joined by pianist Akito Tani.
Between December 2013 and August 2017, the Hagen players performed on the quartet of Stradivari instruments once owned by Nicolò Paganini. The instruments, which have also been used by the Paganini, Cleveland and Tokyo quartets, are now in the hands of the Goldmund Quartet. The Hagen musicians currently perform on instruments by various old Italian masters.
Watch: The Hagen Quartet plays the second movement of the Ravel quartet
Concert review: Hagen Quartet in belated Seattle debut
Read: Goldmund Quartet picks up €60k award – plus a full set of Strads
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