Ariel Quartet Releases Volume Two of Monumental Beethoven String Quartet Cycle - First Single Out Now

Ariel Quartet Continues Monumental Beethoven String Quartet Cycle
Three Albums over Two Years

Culminating in 2027
Honoring Beethoven’s Legacy 200 Years After His Passing 

Volume Two to be Released Worldwide on November 7, 2025
On Orchid Classics 

First Single Out Now: LISTEN

“At moments on this lively first volume of its perusal of the complete Beethoven string quartets, the players of the Ariel Quartet come across like a living organism with a single central nervous system that transmits emotional impulses to every part of the body.”
– Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, The New York Times, on Vol. 1

Review CDs and downloads available upon request. 

Ariel Quartet: www.arielquartet.com/the-cycle

Upcoming Performances: www.arielquartet.com/schedule

The Ariel Quartet (Alexandra Kazovsky, violin; Gershon Gerchikov, violin; Jan Grüning, viola; and Amit Even-Tov, cello) – distinguished by its virtuosity, probing musical insight, and impassioned performances – will release the complete Beethoven String Quartets over two years on the Orchid Classics label, culminating in 2027, the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s death. The Quartet released the first volume of the series on April 4, 2025, and will release volume two on November 7, 2025, with volume three arriving in June 2026 and a special box set release in March 2027.

Volume two of the cycle, recorded across three CDs, includes Beethoven’s Razumovsky Quartets – String Quartet No. 7 in F major, Op. 59 No. 1; String Quartet No. 9 in C major, Op. 59 No. 3; and String Quartet No. 8 in E minor, Op. 59 No. 2 – as well as his String Quartet No. 10 in E-flat major, Op. 74; and String Quartet No.11 in F minor, Op. 95, “Quartetto serioso.” The first single from the album, movement one of Op. 95, is available now.

The Ariel Quartet’s first volume of this Beethoven Cycle has been met with considerable critical acclaim, with positive reviews in The New York Times, Gramophone, The Whole Note, Classical Voice of North America, and more. Richard Wigmore wrote in Gramophone magazine that the album included, “supremely skillful, deeply considered performances . . . no one could deny the physical and intellectual energy of the Ariel’s playing, or their sheer technical brilliance.”

Formed when the members were just teenagers studying at the Jerusalem Academy Middle School of Music and Dance in Israel, the Ariel Quartet has a long history with the quartets of Beethoven. His String Quartet in C minor, Op.18 No.4 was the very first piece that the group tackled together as thirteen year olds, and the members credit the work for hooking them on the genre, for life.

The Quartet recounts an early experience with Beethoven’s Op. 59, the Razumovsky Quartets, which left a long-lasting impression. They write, “A memorable milestone in our personal journey with Beethoven was a concert at Frankfurt’s Kaisersaal during the 1999-2000 season, where we performed all three Razumovsky Quartets in a single evening. At sixteen, we approached the challenge with youthful excitement, and through countless hours in rehearsal we began to understand the depth and demands of this music – gradually developing not only the stamina, but the artistic maturity required to bring over two hours of this intricate music to life. Youthful enthusiasm (let’s be honest: fearlessness) alone allowed us to commit to the repertoire for this important concert without hesitation – and luckily, all went well. In hindsight, preparing this music for increasingly demanding opportunities played a crucial role in forging a confident and lasting relationship with this extraordinary canon.”

In 2013 to mark its 15th anniversary, the Ariel Quartet performed its first complete Beethoven cycle – a landmark for the group, which has been performing Beethoven’s music since its inception. Since then, the Ariel has performed the complete cycle on six occasions throughout the United States and Europe. They view the complete quartets as part of their personal life-long journey reflected in Beethoven’s music – works that are interwoven with the evolution of the string quartet genre as well as the group’s own genesis story.

The Quartet writes:

“As interpreters, we love diving deeply into the music’s details and we leave no theoretical and contextual stone unturned. At the same time, we make sure to maintain our intuitive approach to the music: every work we learn is first sight-read without preparation, unlocking our purest emotional reactions to the music. These feelings are then carefully preserved, allowing us to channel them when all the technical work of putting things where they belong is done. The next stage is when the magic truly happens, and we feel lucky to have been experiencing this over and over since 1998: when the music meets the energy of the audience it starts to develop a life of its own, making each performance a once-in-a-lifetime event. This connection transforms both the music and ourselves, and it’s this immediacy and expressivity we aimed to capture in our recording.”

More about the Ariel Quartet: The Ariel Quartet was named a recipient of the prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award, granted by Chamber Music America in recognition of artistic achievement and career support. Recent highlights include the Quartet’s sold-out Carnegie Hall debut, a series of performances at Lincoln Center together with pianist Inon Barnatan and the Mark Morris Dance Group, as well as the release of a Brahms and Bartók album for Avie Records. In 2020, the Ariel gave the U.S. premiere of the Quintet for Piano and Strings by Daniil Trifonov, with the composer as pianist for the Linton Chamber Music Series in Cincinnati. The Quartet serves as the Faculty Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), where they direct the chamber music program and present a concert series in addition to maintaining a busy touring schedule in the United States and abroad. 

The Ariel Quartet regularly collaborates with today’s eminent and rising young musicians and ensembles, including pianist Orion Weiss, cellist Paul Katz, and the American, Pacifica, and Jerusalem String Quartets. The Quartet has toured with cellist Alisa Weilerstein and performed frequently with pianists Jeremy Denk and Menahem Pressler. In addition, the Ariel served as Quartet-in-Residence for the Steans Music Institute at the Ravinia Festival, the Yellow Barn Music Festival, and the Perlman Music Program, as well as the Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence at the Caramoor Festival.

Formerly the resident ensemble of the Professional String Quartet Training Program at the New England Conservatory, from which the players obtained their undergraduate and graduate degrees, the Ariel was mentored extensively by acclaimed string quartet giants Walter Levin and Paul Katz. It has won numerous international prizes in addition to the Cleveland Quartet Award: First Prize at the prestigious Franz Schubert and Modern Music Competition in Graz/Austria, Grand Prize at the 2006 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and the Székely Prize for the performance of Bartók’s String Quartet No. 4, and Third Prize at the Banff International String Quartet Competition. About its performances at the Banff competition, the American Record Guide described the group as “a consummate ensemble gifted with utter musicality and remarkable interpretive power” and noted, in particular, their playing of Beethoven’s monumental Quartet in A minor, Op. 132, as “the pinnacle of the competition.”

The Ariel Quartet has received significant support from the American-Israel Cultural Foundation, Dov and Rachel Gottesman, and the Legacy Heritage Fund. Most recently, they were awarded a grant from the A.N. and Pearl G. Barnett Family Foundation.

Follow the Ariel Quartet:
www.instagram.com/arielquartet
www.facebook.com/ArielQuartet

ALBUM TRACK LISTING:
Beethoven: The Complete String Quartets Vol. 2
Ariel Quartet
Orchid Classics | Release Date: November 7, 2025

DISC 1: Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) 

String Quartet No. 7 in F major, Op. 59 No. 1
1 Allegro [10:04]
2 Allegretto vivace e sempre scherzando [8:55]
3 Adagio molto e mesto [13:10]
4 Thème Russe: Allegro [8:27] 

String Quartet No. 9 in C major, Op. 59 No. 3
5 Introduzione: Andante con moto – Allegro vivace [10:48]
6 Andante con moto quasi allegretto [9:52]
7 Menuetto: Grazioso [5:12]
8 Allegro molto [6:09]

Total time: 72.41

DISC 2: Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) 

String Quartet No. 8 in E minor, Op. 59 No. 2
1 Allegro [13:55]
2 Molto adagio [12:36]
3 Allegretto [7:30]
4 Presto [5:29]

Total time: 39:33

DISC 3: Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) 

String Quartet No.10 in E-flat major, Op. 74
1 Poco adagio – Allegro [9:23]
2 Adagio ma non troppo [9:22]
3 Presto [5:02]
4 Allegretto con variazioni [6:45] 

String Quartet No. 11 in F minor, Op. 95, "Quartetto serioso"
5 Allegro con brio [4:15]
6 Allegretto ma non troppo [7:19]
7 Allegro assai vivace ma serioso [4:23]
8 Larghetto espressivo – Allegretto agitato – Allegro [4:36]

Total time: 51:11

Ariel Quartet:
Alexandra Kazovsky, violin
Gershon Gerchikov, violin
Jan Grüning, viola
Amit Even–Tov, cello 

Recorded at Robert J. Werner Recital Hall, University of Cincinnati College-
Conservatory of Music on 30 April & 1-3 May 2024 (Disc 1), 17-19 March 2025
(Disc 2) & 27-30 May 2025 (Disc 3)
Producer: Jesse Lewis
Recording Engineer: Shauna Barravecchio
Assistant Engineer: Adam Sorley
Editing Engineers: Caroline Shaffer Robin, Alexandre Robin, Karl Doty & Thiago Wolf
Mix Engineer: Jesse Lewis
Denoise Engineers: Kyle Pyke & Mark Alletag
Mastering Engineer: Christopher Moretti
Authoring Engineer: Shauna Barravecchio
Cover & booklet photography: Marco Borggreve

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