Stross Quartet


The Stross-Quartett was an important German string quartet from Cologne and Munich respectively. The quartet was named after the long-time primarius Wilhelm Stross.

History

It was in the tradition of Joseph Joachim and, like the Klingler Quartet, the Busch Quartet, the Havemann Quartet, the Amar Quartet, the Wendling Quartet and the Strub Quartet, influenced decisively the German string quartet scene in the first half of the 20th century.
During the Second World War the members of the quartet were exempted from military service, which was a rarity. From 1940 the string quartet often played at Wehrmacht concerts. It also performed at NSDAP and Kraft durch Freude events and in military hospitals.
The ensemble was also able to continue its activities in Allied-occupied Germany. After the Second World War, the Stross Quartet became the most important German string quartet alongside the Koeckert Quartet. International concert tours led the ensemble through Europe as well as to Asia, Africa and South America. In the early 1960s the Goethe-Institut organized concerts in Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Cyprus and Greece. The quartet also performed with important foreign actors such as the Paris Loewenguth Quartet and the Vienna Philharmonic Wind Ensemble.
After the death of the founder in 1966, Ingo Sinnhoffer wound up the Stross Quartet. The violinist Josef Märkl and the cellist Rudolf Metzmacher founded the Märkl Quartet in 1968, continuing the tradition of the Stross Quartet.
The repertoire of the ensemble was very broad. Above all, the cyclical performances of the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert are of particular importance. Throughout its history the string quartet has performed premieres of modern compositions by Martin Karl Hasse, Oscar von Pander, Richard Trunk and Mordechai Sheinkman.
The Stross Quartet has made several recordings and radio broadcasts.

Members

The string quartet was recast several times, with Wilhelm Stross almost always being Primarius: