The Siebeneichener Quartett returns to the Celetná Salon with works by Janáček, Schulhoff and Brahms

The first half of the concert will feature Janáček’s String Quartet No. 1, ‘The Kreutzer Sonata, inspired by L. N. Tolstoy’ – a passionate, dramatically intense music inspired by the fateful story of an unhappy marriage – and Ervín Schulhoff’s Five Pieces for String Quartet, a sparkling suite of stylised dances (waltz, serenade, czardas, tango, tarantella). The second half of the evening will then be devoted to a work full of autumnal melancholy and profound introspection – Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115.

The Siebeneichener Quartett was formed in 2023 on the initiative of students at the Prague Conservatoire under the artistic direction of Prof. Radim Sedmidubský. Shortly after its formation, the quartet took part in the Bohuslav Martinů Foundation Competition, where it won first prize and other awards, including the prize for the best participant in the competition and the Viktor Kalabis and Zuzana Růžičková Endowment Fund Prize. In 2024, they attended a masterclass with Areta Zhulla, first violinist of the Juilliard String Quartet, and, at her invitation, took part in masterclasses at the Juilliard School in New York the following year. The quartet’s members have also worked with Fedor Rudin and Milan Šetena. As part of their residency at the Celetná Salon, they also had the opportunity to work under the guidance of the violist and highly sought-after teacher Pavel Nikl. The ensemble has performed at, amongst others, the South Bohemian Chamber Music Festival, the Bohuslav Martinů Days, the Music Festival in Prague and the Zlatá Pecka Festival in Pardubice.

Clarinettist Gabriela Matoušková is studying at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg under Wenzel Fuchs. She completed her bachelor’s degree at HEMU Lausanne in Switzerland under Florent Héau, having previously studied at the Prague Conservatoire under Milan Polák and at the CRR de Paris. She has won numerous awards, notably 2nd prize at the 2024 Leoš Janáček International Competition and the Viktor Kalabis Prize at the Bohuslav Martinů Foundation Competition; she has also been successful at the Concertino Praga, the International Clarinet Competition in Carlin and the Pardubice Winds. In 2022, she was awarded a Yamaha scholarship. As a soloist, she has performed with the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra Ostrava, the Hradec Králové Philharmonic Orchestra and Ensemble Opera Diversa, and gave recitals at the Showcase at the Dvořák Prague Festival (2022) and the Days of Moravian Composers (2025). She recorded Mieczysław Weinberg’s Clarinet Sonata for Czech Radio. She is a scholarship holder at the Academy of Chamber Music.