Dynamic chamber group Quatuor Agate will release their debut album Brahms – The

String Quartets on 23 February 2024 with mentor Matthieu Herzog’s Appassionato

Records, on CD and all major digital streaming platforms.

● Speaking of the rarely-recorded repertoire, the group’s first violinist Adrien explains:

“It demands endurance, virtuosity, and presents a real challenge in terms of harmonic

construction... and all of that simultaneously! But for us, the most prolonged process was

finding our conception of the Brahmsian sound.”

● The album will also include Brahms’ Romanze Op.118 No. 5 in F Major, arranged for

quartet by first violinist Adrien Jurkovic, which has become a favourite to perform and

for which sheet music will be available to download with the purchase of their CD.

● The album repertoire is fitting for Quatuor Agate, whose name is derived from Brahms’

Second Sextet dedicated to his second love Agathe von Siebold, which they consider to

be one of the most beautiful chamber music pieces ever written.

● Quatuor Agate were named in the cohort of ECHO Rising Stars ofthe 2024/25 season

which will see them touring Europe's major concert halls, and in their remaining

2023/24 season will travel the world on several tours, most notably to the United

Kingdom, Colombia and Hawaii.

● The Paris-based ensemble formed in 2016 and consists of members Adrien Jurkovic,

Thomas Descamps, Raphaël Pagnon and Simon Iachamet. The group’s first venture was

the creation of the CorsiClassic festival, which now takes place every year in Ajaccio in

Corsica, the mission of which is to bring chamber music to diverse audiences.

● The quartet have become distinguished in various international competitions and

festivals for several years (including Best Contemporary Interpretation Prize at the

BANFF International String Quartet Competition 2022, Audience Prize at the

Steels-Wilsing Competition 2020, and at the Verbier Festival 2019), and achieved a

significant milestone in 2021 by winning the prestigious auditions of the Young

Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) in London. They have released an album with American

tenor Eric Ferring in Chicago in Autumn 2023 via Delos, and in April 2024 will release

another collaborative album with Frank Braley, Gabriel Le Magadure and Concert de

Chausson via Appassionato Records.