Fantastic Four

With its India tour,the Acies Quartet wants to get people attuned to western classical music.

All for one and one for all’ is the principle that the Acies Quartet lives by. Their common passion for western classical chamber music brought Benjamin Ziervogel,Raphael Kasprian,Manfred Plessl and Thomas Wiesflecker together at the Music Conservatory in Klagenfurt,Austria. We decided to form a string quartet while we attended a music study programme together in Mandrid,Spain, says Ziervogel,who plays the first violin. Kasprian plays the second violin,Plessl plays the viola and Wiesflecker’s expertise lies with the cello.

The Acies Quartet was invited by Austrian Cultural Forum and Austrian Embassy to perform in India in 2010. They toured Delhi,Mumbai and Kolkata. The team has now been invited to re-visit the country and perform in Delhi,Pune and Goa. In Pune today,the show has been organised by the Poona Music Society in association with the Austrian Cultural Forum.

In India,people are not very tuned into western classical music. Our goal is to make people interested in this form of music. While maintaining a high qualitative standard,we want to play music which they can appreciate, says Kasprian. The group will keep away from western contemporary music on this tour. “It may sound quite chaotic and unmelodious to people who are not familiar with this genre. We will focus on the classical and romantic periods with Haydn,Beethoven and Mendelssohn,” he adds.

The four artistes attented various master classes in New York,Munich and Vienna to prepare themselves for their debut album in December 2007 follwed by a second album in April 2009. The Acies Quartet performed live for the first time in the Schubert-Saal of the Vienna Konzerthaus in May 2008. Our love for music drives our passion to perform. We plan to continue exploring the string quartet repertoire,which is more than enough for a whole lifetime, says Ziervogel.

(The Acies Quartet will perform at Mazda Hall,Camp,today at 7 pm)

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