»It must have been a stroke of luck that brought these four musicians together to form an ensemble.« (Süddeutsche Zeitung)

Founded in Munich in 1998, these four musical idealists worked together in their early years with such outstanding ensembles as the Amadeus Quartet and the LaSalle Quartet. Besides the masterpieces of the classical-romantic repertoire, they focus on performing unknown and contemporary compositions.

The discography of the Diogenes Quartet is as long as it is varied. In addition to many première recordings, they produced a highly acclaimed complete set of Schubert quartets for the Brilliant Classics label. In 2019 the quartet released its new recording of Friedrich Gernsheim`s String Quartets No. 1 and 3 with “cpo”. In March 2020 an additional CD followed with works by Max Reger: the String Sextet in F major, op.118 (together with Roland Glass and Wen-Sinn Yang) as well as the Clarinet Quintet in A major, op. 146 with Thorsten Johanns.

Their itinerary encompasses not only the Würzburg Mozart Festival and the Festival de Radio France et Montpellier but regular tours of nearby and distant countries. Highlights of the past include a tour of Mexico and guest performances in Italy and Spain.

The ensemble also has a penchant for crossover programmes, as when they thrilled audiences with »A Dream of Brahms«, played jointly with the jazz quartet of violinist Max Grosch. No less important to them is music outreach, as can be seen in their many children’s concerts, workshop recitals and chamber music clinics. Since 2015 they have also been active as cultural ambassadors for SOS Children’s Villages.

The quartet owes its name to their longstanding friendship with Rudolph C. Bettschart, the former co-owner of the Swiss publishing firm Diogenes.