Belcea Quartet to make return visit to UB

The Belcea Quartet, one of Europe’s finest string quartets, will make its third trip to Buffalo in five concert seasons for an appearance at UB on Oct. 18.

The quartet will perform at 7:30 p.m. in Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall, North Campus, as part of the Slee Visiting Artist Series.

The ensemble — Romanian violinist Corina Belcea, Korean-Australian violinist Suyeon Kang, Polish violist Krzysztof Chorzelski and French cellist Antoine Lederlin — will a program featuring the music of Schubert (Quartet in E-flat Major, D. 87), Dvorak (Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 51 “Slavonic”) and Bartok (Quartet No. 5).

Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at Ticketmaster, at the Center for the Arts box office from noon through 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, or at the Slee Hall box office one hour prior to the performance. UB students are admitted free with ID.

The Belcea Quartet held the prestigious position of ensemble-in-residence at the Pierre Boulez Hall in Berlin from 2017-20, and has performed there regularly since then. The quartet has also been part of a shared string quartet series at the Vienna Konzerthaus since 2010.

This season, the ensemble will make guest appearances at prominent European string quartet biennials in Paris, Lisbon and Amsterdam, and will perform at various notable venues, including Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Flagey Brussels, National Concert Hall Dublin, Tonhalle Zurich and Toppan Hall Tokyo. A limited U.S. tour includes a performance at Carnegie Hall in New York the day after the performance at UB.

The quartet is no stranger to Buffalo. During the fall 2018 season, the Department of Music and the Buffalo Chamber Music Society (BCMS) invited the Belcea to Buffalo to perform two concerts as part of their annual concert collaboration. The enthusiastic response by audiences prompted UB and BCMS to invite the Belcea to perform another pair of concerts in the fall 2021 season.

Phil Rehard, concert manager for the UB music department, recalls that hearing the quartet perform for the very first time was “one of the most captivating performances I’ve ever experienced.”

So, he says, there was no hesitation when UB had the opportunity to have the quartet perform back to perform this fall.