The excellence of the Reina Sofía School of Music is reflected in this series, which brings together its most promising students on the stage of the National Auditorium of Music.
In this concert by the Arriaga Quartet, three essential perspectives on the string quartet articulate the program, from the incisive conciseness of Stravinsky to the expressive heights of Beethoven and Schubert. The Three Pieces condense a fragmented and bold language into miniature, while the first of the “Razumovsky” quartets displays the structural ambition and emotional breadth of mature Beethoven. In Death and the Maiden, Schubert takes the genre to a territory of almost existential dramatic intensity, where rhythmic urgency and lyrical depth coexist in unstable equilibrium.
Arriaga Quartet of Banco de España
Created at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in 1995, the Banco de España Arriaga Quartet, in its current line-up, studies under the tutelage of Heime Müller, professor in the String Quartet Department.
Since its creation, the Quartet has given concerts in various cities around the world, such as New York, Madrid, Cologne, Marvão, Santander, Valladolid, and several localities in Andalusia and Valencia. They have had the opportunity to perform at such prominent venues as the Kölner Philharmonie, the Auditorio Nacional, the Cervantes Institute (NY), Sala Argenta, the Teatro Real, the Auditorio Sony, and the Casino Real; and have also collaborated with musicians of the calibre of Milana Chernyavska, Pablo Barragán, Silke Avenhaus, Christoph Poppen, Alekséi Ogrinchuk, and Avri Levitan. In 2025, the Arriaga Quartet participated in the Encounter of Music and Academy of Santander, the Marvão Academy (Portugal), and the Musethica project.
They have been awarded the prize for the most outstanding string quartet at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in the 2023–2024 and 2024–2025 academic years, granted by H.M. Queen Sofía of Spain. In addition, they have won major prizes in prestigious competitions such as the Vienna International Chamber Music Competition, where they received the Golden Medal, and Juventudes Musicales de España, in the chamber music category, where they were awarded second prize.
Throughout their training, the members of the quartet have received masterclasses from leading figures in the world of classical chamber music, such as Günter Pichler (Alban Berg), Heime Müller and Gregor Sigl (Artemis Quartet), Vera Martínez (Casals Quartet), Cibrán Sierra (Quiroga Quartet), Christoph Poppen (Cherubini Quartet), and Fernando Arias and Miguel Colom (Vibrart Trio).
In June 2024, the quartet performed for the Kings of Spain at the Royal Palace during the commemorative ceremony marking the tenth anniversary of the coronation of King Felipe VI.
