is an unusual and unique occurrence in modern musical culture. The musicians convincingly overcome barriers of genre, making the ensemble’s performances hits both in famous philharmonic halls, and at jazz and world music festivals. The musicians have a natural artistry, captivating listeners of any nationality and eliciting unfailing ovations at the end of their performance. Every musical composition performed at their concerts is converted into ‘instrumental theatre’.

The ensemble changes our perception of contemporary concert music, sensing the atmosphere of an audience and almost improvising their compositions to form dialogues with their listeners. Their repertoire includes over 200 compositions – original transcriptions and paradoxical fantasies based on popular musical themes of Bach, Mozart, Rossini, Bizet, Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, Schedrin, Piazzolla, Rota, etc. The Terem Quartet presents its listeners with a new, modern view of world classical music. Their creativity is a musical expression of the uniqueness of the Russian soul, its sensitivity to ideals and the spirit of other national cultures, which the writer Fyodor Dostoevsky called the ‘exclusive property of the Russian genius’.

 

The ensemble’s achievements make for impressive reading: the Terem Quartet is the Prize-Winner of the XIII World Festival of Youth and Students in Pyongyang, the winner of the Gold Ostap prize in the ‘Humour in Music’ category (1993), holder of the title of 1997’s ‘Group of the Year’ from a poll of the Russian ‘Musical Review’ newspaper. The Terem Quartet’s solo performances at the Edinburgh Festival (1998) were pronounced one of the best shows of the festival and were awarded five stars by the Scotsman newspaper. In 2002, the ensemble became the winner of the Gold Book of the Fatherland for outstanding achievements for the good of Russia.

 

Giovanni Amighetti by arvmusic produced their “No, Russia cannot be perceived by wit” for Schott Musik-Intuition in 1998.