New album release: the earth trembled
We are very excited to release the earth trembled, our fourth album for PENTATONE. Here we recontextualise the visionary string quartets of Leoš Janáček and place them alongside the striking String Quartet Op. 8 by Vítězslava Kaprálová.
Janáček’s lifelong engagement with folk traditions shaped these works profoundly; he lays bare an extraordinary spectrum of feeling, exposing the innermost reaches of his psyche with an almost unsettling immediacy, music in which the earth really does tremble. Set against this, Kaprálová’s quartet offers balance: a strikingly youthful yet assured voice emerging from the same cultural milieu, opening an equally compelling emotional range. Interspersed throughout are fragments of Janáček’s folk song arrangements and intimate miniatures from his album for Kamila Stösslová, whose absent voice subtly haunts the programme, weaving a fragile, imagined narrative between the works.
Critics’s award for “A Dark Flaring”
We’re deeply happy to share that our ECM album A Dark Flaring: Works for String Quartet from South Africa has been awarded the prestigious Italian critics’ award Premio Abbiati del Disco 2026 in the chamber music category.
“A Dark Flaring” grew from our desire to bring the music of South African composers into a wider conversation. We’re deeply grateful to ECM Records, the composers, our collaborators, and everyone who has listened and supported the project.
SIGNUM open space website
SIGNUM open space has a new website! Here you can learn about our newly constituted registered association SIGNUM open space e.V, and see what’s on at the Überseeinsel.
OPUS Klassik 2024: Chamber Music Recording of the Year
We’re overjoyed at winning our second OPUS Klassik, this time for our Schubert album “Lebensmuth”, released for PENTATONE. This is a great honour, and we are thankful for the recognition.
“Bridge the chasms that divide”
New works for string quartet 30 years after the fall of apartheid in South Africa
For our new project, we invite some of South Africa‘s most original and powerful voices to reflect musically on their own experiences and journeys before and after 1994. “Bridge the chasms that divide“ will launch in Bremen on South African Freedom Day, exactly 30 years after the first free and fair elections took place.
Press
the earth trembled
“A triumph, this soulful string quartet album.”—Concerti
the earth trembled
“intense and beautifully characterised […] an intriguing issue”—BBC Music Magazine
A Dark Flaring
“superbly played […] tremendous performances and pitch-perfect sound”—Gramophone
Lebensmuth
“breathtaking”—The Strad recommends
Lebensmuth
“Intoxicating and deeply moving. Sublime ensemble playing.”—concerti
Ins stille Land
“a deeply moving experience”—Strings Magazine
Aus der Ferne
“one of the most sensitive interpretations ever recorded.”—Diapason
“Fury, tenderness, terror, sardonic humour and resignation were here in a journey that left the listener bruised and breathless“—The Times
Supported by:
Heinz Peter und Annelotte Koch-Stiftung
