uartet

Sara, Jacopo, Jonas and Antoinette got to know each other in different capacities at the Utrecht and Amsterdam conservatories and had been working together for some time in various ensembles, such as Furor Musicus and the Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht, before founding the Gut String Quartet in 2022. The Gut String Quartet focuses mainly on earlier and lesser-known repertoire for string quartet. In the project ‘In Copisteria del Conte’ they made their recording debut by recording the two quartets by Pietro Nardini attributed to Hoffmeister. The album ‘In Copisteria del Conte’ has been released in autumn 2024.

Antoinette Lohmann has been active in a variety of musical areas. As a freelance player, Antoinette has performed and recorded with many orchestras and ensembles all over the world.
Currently her repertoire extends from the early 17th to the 21st century, always performed from a historically informed perspective. She has a special interest in unusual instruments such as the viola d’amore, the violino piccolo and their repertoire. She also has a particular fascination with folk elements found in classical music.
In recent years Antoinette has focussed primarily on chamber music, with special emphasis on Dutch repertoire. She has recorded the complete sonatas for piano and violin by Joseph Martin Kraus and Margarethe Danzi, bassoon quartets by Franz Danzi and Krommer, chamber music works by Belle van Zuylen and 17th-century repertoire from the Netherlands. With the ensemble Furor Musicus, which she founded in 2008, she released several recordings, including the violin sonatas opus 1 & 2 by the 18th century Dutch Baroque composer Jacob Nozeman and a CD with arrangements and reconstructions of works by J.S.Bach. Phantasia Musica, a CD of unknown 17th century repertoire and the CD of virtuoso violin sonatas by Dutch 18th-century composer Pieter Hellendaal both attracted rave reviews in the national and international press. In September 2020, the CD of works by Johann Fischer was released.
Antoinette teaches principal study baroque violin and viola at the Utrechts Conservatorium and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. She regularly teaches as a guest lecturer at conservatories throughout the world.

Jonas Krebs plays violin and viola and enjoys performing baroque, classical and romantic music. He received his first violin lessons at the Zurich and Lausanne conservatories and later studied at the Hochschule der Künste Bern with Corina Belcea, Meret Lüthi (baroque violin) and Prof. Kai Köpp (research) where he graduated cum laude in 2022. Jonas is currently focusing on studying historical performance practice. Recently he finished a master’s programme in this field at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. He plays regularly in ensembles such as Les Passions de l’Âme, Anima Eterna, the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, Holland Baroque, arte frizzante and in various chamber music groups. Jonas gained inspiration in master classes with Mayumi Hirasaki, Petra Müllejans, Rachel Podger, Reinhard Goebel, Hansheinz Schneeberger and Sigiswald Kuijken. Besides his interest in different styles and research into performance practice, Jonas enjoys bringing the music of the past to the present. He plays on a violin built by Pieter Rombouts in Amsterdam around 1715.

Sara de Vries initially studied psychology, but a few years after obtaining her bachelor’s, she turned to studying historical violin and viola. She studied with Antoinette Lohmann and in 2017 she very successfully completed her master’s degree at the Utrecht Conservatoire. Sara plays regularly as violinist and violist with the Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht, Barokopera Amsterdam and ensembles abroad such as Cantus Thuringia and Oslo415. She enjoys playing chamber music and takes great pleasure in fulfilling different roles in ensembles, on both violin and viola. She focuses with her string quartet and trio on lesser-known eighteenth-century and early nineteenth-century repertoire.

Jacopo Ristori earned his degree in Genoa with Nevio Zanardi and his master’s degree in Alessandria with Claudio Merlo in 2010. Important was meeting Antonio Meneses with whom he studied for two years and further improved his technical and musical skills. Jacopo worked as a freelance cellist in Italy for many years, during which time he developed an interest in historical performance practice.
In 2016, he moved to the Netherlands to study with Viola de Hoog at the Utrecht Conservatoire. He deepened and broadened his knowledge, and in June 2019 he obtained his master’s degree in historical cello with distinction from the entire jury (his own arrangement and performance of Schumann’s cello concerto particularly impressed). While studying in Utrecht, Jacopo also studied violone in G to better approach the role of the bass in 17th-century music – the cello being a relatively new instrument. However, Jacopo has a fondness for 19th-century repertoire and enjoys experimenting with this from a historical perspective.
Jacopo currently lives in the Netherlands where he works as a freelancer with various ensembles such as Concerto Köln, Apollo Ensemble, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and the Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht conducted by Johannes Leertouwer.
Jacopo plays on a South German cello, built around 1780.

Projecten

The string quartet in the 'Mannheimer Schule'

Under the reign of Chorister Carl Theodore, the Mannheimer Court developed into an important cultural centre between 1743 and 1778, where there was room for the development of an extraordinary orchestral and compositional tradition. Johann Stamitz (1717-1757) became concertmaster of the court chapel in 1743 and is considered the musical founder of what we now call the Mannheimer Schule. Under his leadership, the court chapel grew into Europe’s most acclaimed orchestra of its time. Some of the musicians began as Accesist (apprentices) in the orchestra, such as the violinists and composers Cannabich, von Winter, Fränzl and Stamitz’s own sons Anton and Carl. Many orchestra members also composed for the court; there was a clear division of labour for this. The children of orchestra members who grew up at court often ended up in the orchestra as well. In effect, the orchestra trained its own musicians and played its own music, allowing a unity and style built from within. With the Court’s move to Munich in 1778, the chapel became fragmented. Although the style of the Mannheimers is categorized in the books as the so-called Vorklassik, a rather curious classification, which presumably stems mainly from the fact that it has now been decided that the classical style is defined by a number of more famous greats, such as Mozart and Haydn, it is clear that the Mannheimers stood at the foot of what is now considered the classical style.

Programme

Franz Xaver Richter (1709-1789)
String quartet opus 5/2 in B-flat major (1757)
Poco Allegretto, Poco Andante, Fugato

Christian Cannabich (1731-1798)
String quartet opus 5/2 in e minor (1773)
Andante moderato, Allegro

Anton Stamitz (1750-? (between 1796/1809)
String quartet book 8/5 in B-flat major (published between 1782 and 1786)
Allegro, Rondo

Peter (von) Winter (1754-1825)
Book 3/2 in re minore, ca. 1800
Largo, Tempo di Menuetto Majore,  Rondo Finale Allegro

Ferdinand Fränzl (1767-1833)
String quartet opus 1/6 in D major (1790)
Allegro con brio, Andante un poco Adagio, Rondò scherzando

In copisteria del Conte

‘In Copisteria del Conte’ is a recording project born from two needs: the first is to bring to light music that is almost unknown to today’s ears, while the second is to recount the musical ferment of a city of European interest, such as Genoa, in the second half of the 18th century, through the production collected and transcribed by the fervid activity of the most important copy shop in the area at the time. The Gut String Quartet was part of this, recording two quartets attributed to Pietro Nardini by Count Taccoli, owner of the copy shop.

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