Germany's Fauré Quartett ranks among Europe's foremost chamber ensembles as one of the few piano quartets that has preserved an unchanging membership. Commissions and arrangements of many types have allowed the group to enlarge the body of works written for the piano quartet medium.
The ensemble came together in 1995 to mark the 150th anniversary of its namesake's birth. Its founding and continuing members are violinist Erika Geldsetzer, violist Sascha Frömbling, cellist Konstantin Heidrich, and pianist Dirk Mommertz. All four had studied at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe and transferred as a unit to the Musikhochschule Köln. Because stable membership distinguishes the Fauré Quartett from the many piano quartets assembled from piano trios or from three string-quartet players plus a pianist, the group obtained performing and teaching engagements with relative ease. First prizes at the Deutscher Musikwettbewerb in 1999 and at both the Trio di Trieste and Vittorio Gui competitions in Italy in 2000 advanced its career. In 2004 the quartet became quartet-in-residence at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe.
It has appeared in leading European capitals and at festivals in Germany and other countries. The members established the Rügen Festival on the German Baltic Sea island of Rügen and led the event for several seasons. New works by Alexandre Tansman, Volker David Kirchner, and Toshio Hosokawa have entered the quartet's repertory; the ensemble has also released and regularly performs a set of popular-song arrangements for piano quartet titled Popsongs.
Recording activity began in 2005 with an Ars Musici album containing music by Schumann and Kirchner. Two years later the group moved to Deutsche Grammophon, where it issued a Brahms piano-quartet recording that received Germany's ECHO Klassik award and appeared on Rufus Wainwright's Yellow Lounge album. A full album of Popsongs followed in 2009. Additional recordings have appeared on Sony Classical and Berlin Classics, the latter label issuing a 2020 album devoted to Gabriel Fauré's piano quartets.
The members continue to teach, holding positions at the Universität der Künste Berlin and the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst München.
