𝄞 Jakub Fišer - first violin 𝄞
𝄞 Štěpán Ježek - second violin 𝄞
𝄡 Jiří Pinkas - viola 𝄡
𝄢 Štěpán Doležal - violoncello 𝄢
“Ensemble that one could spontaneously count as one of the best one has ever heard”
Süddeutsche Zeitung
“Drama, expression, and utmost sensitivity.”
The Strad
“White-hot performances”
Clevelandclassical
“Great art.”
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
“Pure musical democracy.”
Schwäbische Post
“Masters of the high art of listening.”
Pizzicato
The Bennewitz Quartet is one of the top ensembles on the international chamber music scene. After winning two prestigious competitions – Osaka Chamber Music and Festa 2005 and Prémio Paolo Borciani, Italy 2008, they quickly gained the acclaim of the critics. The ensemble has received various awards and in 2019 the four musicians won the Classic Prague Award for the Best Chamber Music Performance of the year.
In the 2026–27 season, the Bennewitz Quartet will launch its new recording of Dvořák’s String Quartet in C major, Op. 61, and a selection of Dvořák songs with mezzo-soprano Markéta Cukrová. Further highlights include debuts at the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., and in Helsinki; two concerts in Germany with violist Veronika Hagen; a tour of the Netherlands; and performances at the Liederhalle Stuttgart and Mozartfest Würzburg. In June, the quartet will give a special concert in Madrid, performing on four Stradivari instruments from the Spanish Royal Collection. Later that month, it will join the Mandelring and Aris Quartets for a complete cycle of Beethoven’s string quartets in Kempen and Duisburg.
Since 1998 the quartet bears the name of the violinist and director of a music conservatory in Prague, Antonín Bennewitz (1833-1926) who contributed greatly to the establishment of the Czech violin school. The most significant musicians who count among his disciples are Otakar Ševčík and František Ondříček and above all Karel Hoffman, Josef Suk and Oskar Nedbal who, under Bennewitz’s influence, formed the famous Bohemian Quartet.
“Unbelievably good!”
Saarbrückener Zeitung
“Perfect mastery of style and real experience of this repertoire.”
Diapason
“Simply splendid.”
Luzerner Zeitung
“The Bennewitz quartet is downright wonderful, with a perfect balance of warmth and objective clarity”
Gramophone