When the Alban Berg Quartet disbanded almost 20 years ago – or rather, when they decided to stop performing – an era came to an end: an era that paved the way for chamber music in general and, above all, for the ‘spirited conversation between four interlocutors’, as making music in a string quartet is also known. When one listened to the Alban Berg Quartet, it was the end of a pleasant evening of chamber music where the biscuits and drinks were more important than the music. This ensemble’s concerts were stirring, exhilarating and intoxicating, and sometimes all of these at once in a single moment…. Beethoven’s music was the centre around which everything revolved. This paved the way for Urbanner, Rihm and Nono, and time and again for the ‘Lyrische Suite’ by the quartet’s namesake, Alban Berg.
Without first violinist Günter Pichler, this quartet would never have existed; without his energy, his ambition, his passion for delving deep into the music and shaping it through sound, and without his vision of allowing this musical dialogue among the four of them to become, at times, a matter of debate, these concert experiences would never have taken place. The quartet, with him at the helm, performed over 50 times at the Cologne Philharmonic Hall, and those who were there remain impressed by the experience to this day. The music world has lost in Günter Pichler someone who was a unique figure, in the way he penetrated the music and brought it to life in an electrifying manner in the moment.