Since its foundation in Munich, the Goldmund Quartet has quickly asserted itself as one of the most magnificent young European ensembles. They have already played at the Festival d’Aix, the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele, at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, and toured France, Scandinavia, the USA and Canada, Austria – visiting Vienna's prestigious Musikverein – and Switzerland.. This first album, dedicated to the father of the quartet, Haydn, was unanimously hailed by critics: this new album dedicated to Shostakovich, comprising the phenomenal Third Quartet from 1946 (which was censured by the communist regime for "pessimism and formalism"), and the rarer Ninth from 1964 – a much more mature work – which, rarely for this composer, was subject to many revisions. So we welcome this new performance, in which the quartet truly give them impression of playing a single, sixteen-stringed instrument rather than four separate ones. © SM/Qobuz