With attractive but unconventional programmes Ragazze Quartet has come to be one of the most fresh and leading voices in the world of classical music. In innovative programmes it embarks on collaborations with the most original voices in theatre, dance and literature. With performances that speak to all senses they succeed in securing an audience for the rich classical music tradition. In this way they warm the hearts of both the die hard listener and the novice for the string quartet repertoire of the past and of our present day.
Ragazze likes to join forces with young musicians and theatre makers just as with leading organisations such as Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT), the Kronos Quartet, Orkater and the Holland Festival. In addition, the quartet has taken over artistic leadership of chamber music festival September Me in Amersfoort.
Ragazze is a permanent artist with CD label Channel Classics and has released no fewer than nine CDs with them already: ‘Vivere’, ‘Česko’, ‘FourFourThree’,’Spiegel’, ‘Bartók Bound vol. 1.&2, Winterreise, Open Spaces and But Not My Soul.
The musicians of Ragazze, pictured above:
Left: Rosa Arnold – first violin, top centre: Jeanita Vriens-van Tongeren – second violin, bottom centre: Nathalie Flintrop – cello, right: Annemijn Bergkotte – viola
Fotocredits: Pien Düthmann
In ‘But not my soul’, Ragazze Quartet stands up for Florence Price, an American composer from the first half of the 20th century. Her work is a pleasant mix of European romanticism, her ‘Southern’ roots, the emerging blues and African-American spirituals.
We combine the music of Florence Price with the always beautiful ‘American quartet’ by Antonín Dvořák, a great inspiration to Price, and with a new work by singer-songwriter Rhiannon Giddens. The title of this album is derived from one of the lines from her song: ‘You can take my body, but not my soul.’
The album ‘But not my soul’ has been released with Channel Classics on March 8, 2024 and will be accompanied by a concert tour through the Netherlands.
Order directly from us by emailing ragazze@ragazzequartet.nl (€ 18 + shipping costs).
Artwork cover: Joana Choumali
Together with ground-breaking composer and violist Garth Knox, Ragazze releases an album with Knox’s most recent works. ‘Four Into Twenty’ is written specifically for the Ragazze Quartet and captures the resilient spirit of the 1920’s & 2020’s. Other pieces on this recording include ‘Satellites’, commissioned by the Kronos Quartet and ‘Quartet for One’, performed by Knox himself, where each string of a viola represents a member of the string quartet.
The CD has been released with Channel Classics on April 14th, 2023. You can order this album by sending an email to ragazze@ragazzequartet.nl (€16,99 + shipping costs)
Gramophone
‘Several of these pieces have been previously recorded, but not both the sense of enjoyment as radiated by the Ragazze or Knox himself. Vividly recorded (..) his new release is both provocative and engaging, and can be warmly recommended.’
Trouw
‘An intriguing album’
The Strad
“The Dutch Ragazze Quartet is completely inside Knox’s tonally tinged, mercurial music, which – aided by a close, lifelike recording – is presented to the listener with ideal clarity and enormous panache.”
For the last and coming years we’ve declared ourselves Bartók Bound. We delve deep into his music and present his quartets in all sorts of ways and all kinds of programmes. This album is the second testimony.
The CD was released: November 12th, 2021. You can order this album by sending an email to ragazze@ragazzequartet.nl (€16,99 + shipping costs)
De Volkskrant 5*
The Dutch Ragazze Quartet knows how to handle Bartók: from blushing red to icey and sad.
Gramophone
In reviewing the first volume of Bartók quartets featuring these Dutch-based players I affirmed that ‘the Ragazze Quartet certainly cut the mustard. If Vol. 2 is as good as this, there’ll be cause to celebrate’ (7/19). Happily, I can suggest you raise a glass to this second volume, which is, if anything, even finer than the first.
The Strad
A first-class recording complements the unerring Bartókian instincts of the Ragazze.
Martijn Cornet and the Ragazze Quartet bring a probing version of Schubert’s Winterreise, in an arrangement for baritone and string quartet. The yearning for the unknown and the unworldly speaks from the text of each song of Winterreise. This voyage isn’t just any voyage; it is a voyage towards the undefined.
Order by sending an email to ragazze@ragazzequartet.nl (€ 16,99 + delivery costs). The CD is released with Channel Classics February 19th 2021.
Press:
‘Cornet’s “Der Leiermann” is crystal clear, without vibrato, while the string players simulate a ghostly hurdy gurdy. A laudable addition to the Winterreise catalogue.’
De Volkskrant 4*
‘The Ragazze Quartet plays at the cutting edge and stimulates the senses with an effective approach.’
De Gelderlander
For the coming years we’ve declared ourselves Bartók Bound. We delve deep into his music and present his quartets in all sorts of ways and all kinds of programmes. This album is the first testimony.
You can order this album by sending an email to ragazze@ragazzequartet.nl(€16,99 + shipping costs) Or via www.channelclassics.com of iTunes
The Ragazze Quartet certainly cut the mustard. If Volume 2 is as good as this, there’ll be cause to celebrate.
Gramophone – Rob Cowan
Two works from the very heart of the string quartet repertoire, and related to one another in a special way. Mendelssohn wrote his string quartet a few months after Beethoven’s death and it clearly shows that he was strongly inspired by Beethoven’s late string quartets, specifically his opus 132. The two works seem to us to be a diptych; they mirror one another. You can order Spiegel by sending an e-mail to ragazze@ragazzequartet.nl (€16,99 plus shipping). Or via www.channelclassics.com or iTunes
Felix Mendelssohn
String Quartet no. 2 in A minor opus 13
Ludwig van Beethoven
String Quartet no. 15 in A minor opus 132
A modern song cycle with singer Nora Fischer and drummer Remco Menting written by Morris Kliphuis (music) and Lucky Fonz III (lyrics), via Excelsior Recordings. The album is inspired by the every day life of the writers and performers. All of the same genearation, they have grown up with internet, social media, smartphones and always being available. You can order by sending an e-mail to ragazze@ragazzequartet.nl (€16,99 plus shipping) or download this album via Itunes.
Four four three is our third cd with Channel Classics Records! After our earlier more classical oriented cds, for this release we collaborated with two ensembles from different fields. Slagwerk Den Haag with its contemporary sounds and the unusual jazz-trio Kapok.
You can order by sending an e-mail to ragazze@ragazzequartet.nl (€16,99- + shipping) or via Channel Classics, Bol.com of Itunes.
Trouw ****
“(…) a performance with a unique atmosphere. Light floating, exotic, transparent, all equipped with a natural rhythmic drive.”
Luister (10 out of 10)
“So much intelligence and refinement: nowhere the instruments are in each other’s way. Everyone can be who he is. Riley has a soft, thin skin which deserves to be touched with love and tenderness.”
Gramophone (Editor’s Choice award in August)
“The pulse is discreetly shunted towards the background, utterly charming the senses with an often delicate mechanism of light pizzicato strings and mallet percussion…This performance deals up moments of sheer magic.”
Our second CD with Channel Classics is Česko! On Česko we go on a musical journey across Europe to the extraordinary land of Bohemia, the homeland of two composers we have come to love so much: Dvořák and Schulhoff.
Please note! This album is sold out, but can still be streamed on Spotify or other streaming channels.
De Volkskrant *****
‘In their hands, the Czech piece becomes a physical, rhythmic power that comes from deep within the Ragazze. Together they play chords as if their hands and arms are being mastered by on mind.’
Luister (een Luister 10)
‘Dvorak opus 106, a work Ragazze is united with, dead-accurate and intense.’
Gramophone
‘Their biggest strength is an added quota of spontaneity, which keeps you consistently engaged.’
‘..the Ragazze Quartet’s Channel Classics CD is mightily impressive’
The Guardian ***
‘An exhilarating Bohemian double bill’
‘The playing of the wittily named all-female Ragazze Quartet is fresh, light in texture, nimble and just occasionally a little ragged, but always spirited.’
SA-CD.net *****
‘Ragazze’s performances of these pieces are brilliantly executed, full of deadpan humour and bring a delightful contrast with the more serious works on this disc.’
Our first cd with Channel Classics is called Vivere! A cd with 3 pieces about death, played by the Ragazze who are in the midst of life!
Order this album by sending us a mail: ragazze@ragazzequartet.nl (€16,99- + shipping) or via Channel Classics of Bol.com.
Haydn – ‘Fifth’ quartet
Schubert – Death and the Maiden
Widmann – Hunting quartet
Huffington Post
In Haydn’s op. 76 no. 2 and Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden,” they flirt with life, they play the rests, they play the expressive markings, too, and they find new breadth and breath in themes that are too often rushed or merely stormed through. In the Widmann, they are merely ferocious.
International Record Review
The Ragazze Quartet delivers an abruptly contoured and fittingly acerbic performance of Haydn, abetted by brisk tempos and a keen sense of the work’s structural needs.
The Examiner
Ragazze gives Schubert’s Death and the Maiden an energetic reading, playing up the dark dramatism for all its worth. In Widmann they are determined to destroy any sexist preconceptions of any of their listeners, Ragazze performed this quartet with all of the savage violence the composer intended for it; and, while it would have been nice to encounter it in the context of Widmann’s full cycle, this performance certainly made for an aggressively bold move in concluding a debut recording.
The Grammaphone
…the heritage of string quartet-playing is too authentic in it, and there is too much skill behind the kaleidoscoping of colours from phrase to phrase that loses nothing in its perfection of ensemble in the process.
Foundation L’Alleanza delle Ragazze
p/a Sterappelstraat 1
1036 LE Amsterdam
Board of Directors:
Nico Schaafsma
Luuk Kornelius
Maarten Mostert
Omar de Jong
Trade register nr 55179533
The Ragazze Quartet follows the collective labour agreement for music ensembles. The members of the board perform their duties on an honorary basis; they receive neither vacancy fees nor expense allowances. The Ragazze Quartet adheres to the income limit set forth in the Standardization of Remuneration for Top Officials in the Public and Semi-Public Sector Act as the remuneration maximum.