Raphael Feye and Karski Quartet Boccherini Quintets

In May 2023 we recorded a CD of Boccherini’s less known string quintets – some of them premieres – with our friend Raphaël Feye – a wonderful, versatile musician, cellist and conductor. In fact we first got to know him in that second role, as the leader of the chamber orchestra Les Métamorphoses, and now he’s partnering with us as a cellist!
 
The generous help of bow maker Andy Lim made it possible for us to record with a set of classical bows. To make the recording even more exciting, we also decided to shake up the distribution of the parts, so that the four quintets have three different group leaders – and therefore every piece has more of a distinct character.

La Valse Philippe Graffin

À la Valse

‘À la Valse’ is a unique project in which we were brought together by our former teacher Philippe Graffin to record Enescu’s Octet and a new arrangement of Ravel’s La Valse made by the young Belgian composer Tim Mulleman.

This project means a lot to us – apart from the purely musical adventures (Enescu’s Octet being one of the most incredible pieces of music ever written, for one) it’s a wonderful occasion to work together with Philippe, who has been an inspiration ever since our study years and has always been much more than just a teacher to us.

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Traces - Chamber Music Festival Brussels

Alexandra Stréliski and KQ
„Néo-Romance’’

Sometimes beautiful things happen completely by accident. A chance meeting on the train started a collaboration with the Jewish Canadian pianist and composer Alexandra Streliski, who invited us to record with her for her newest CD album Neo Romance. An endeavour filled with so much love, joy and harmony,
In Alexandra’s words, “Néo-Romance is about imagining things and telling stories. To lose yourself whilst listening, as a way to resist disenchantment and isolation.’’

This project is full of coincidences – or rather serendipities – one of them being Alexandra’s Jewish-Polish roots, playing into the story of our quartet, its name (Karski) and our being Polish. As Alexandra says, “with a new love leading me back to Europe, to my roots and these discoveries, it just all came together. It made perfect sense.”

String Quartet Biennale Amsterdam Residency

‘’Trust Me” is the title of two programmes developed during our SQBA residency together with the Dutch Belinfante Quartet and visually impaired amateur singers from the Dutch Royal Visio Expertise Center. Exploring together what we have in common as well as our differences, we have been learning how to sense and inspire each other, how to communicate our boundaries and work together to create an artistic performance. We find this project very close to our hearts – it aligns with our values as musicians and encourages us to expand our horizons. You will be able to watch and hear the result during the String Quartet Biennale Amsterdam 2024!