Tobias String Quartet

The Tobias String Quartet was founded in 2000. At the present, the quartet comprises the following members – Maano Männi (violin), Kristjan Hallik (violin), Toomas Nestor (viola) and Aare Tammesalu (cello). The name of the quartet is a tribute to composer Rudolf Tobias – the composer who wrote the first Estonian string quartet. The first performance under the name Tobias String Quartet took place at the festival Tobias and His Time in 2001, although the members of the quartet had already cooperated earlier.

Since the foundation of the Quartet, it has been regularly performing in concerts and festivals – Music of Seven Towns, Eduard Tubin and His Time, Tartu Guitar Days, Rudolf Tobias Days, Suure-Jaani Music Days and in concert series Academic Chamber Music. In addition to the concerts in Estonia, they have performed in Athens, Berlin, Helsinki, Riga, St. Petersburg and Stockholm.

The repertoire of the ensemble includes world's string quartet literature masterpieces by Franz Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Schubert, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Antonín Dvorák and others. Also Estonian music holds an important place in the repertoire, composers like Tõnu Kõrvits, Andres Uibo and Robert Jürjendal have written music for Tobias String Quartet.

In September 2003, in a cooperation with Estonian Record Productions, the quartet recorded their first CD with music by Fridrich Bruk for German company Erdenklang. They have also recorded music by Lepo Sumera, Veljo Tormis, Tõnis Kaumann, Jaan Rääts, Heimar Ilves and Tõnu Kõrvits for Estonian Radio.

With accordion player Reet Laube Tobias String Quartet has performed a concert program entitled Passion which was based on music by Astor Piazzolla. In a cooperation with actress Anu Lamp, concert program Estonian Miniatures was made up in occasion of the 90th anniversary of Estonian Republic. The program consisted of Estonian poetry of the last three centuries and miniatures for string instruments by Estonian composers Enn Võrk, Rudolf Tobias, Heino Eller and Tõnu Kõrvits.

The performance of the Tobias String Quartet was offering everything intrinsic to a good chamber ensemble: romantic, high quality vigor of sound and particularly well presented piano, with extreme accuracy prepared tempos and charaters (Lento) and the dramaturgy of the form (Finale). In other words, the performance was successful both in details and as a whole.
Toomas Velmet. Tobiase-nimeline Soome-Eesti keelpillikvartett. – Sirp, March 5, 2004

Compared to some other Estonian quartets, the sound of the Tobias Quartet comprises pleasant warmth and diverse colors.
Evi Arujärv. Suvemuusika kannatuse ja huumoriga. – Postimees, July 19, 2003

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