Time to Say Goodbye

45 years: in the fast-moving world of classical music, that’s practically an eternity. And yet the Hagen Quartet has pulled off the rare feat of remaining at the very top for this record-setting stretch without losing its edge, falling into routine, or showing any signs of artistic wear. Even more remarkably, three of the four siblings who founded the ensemble in the 1970s – and promptly won the “Jugend musiziert” Youth Competition – are still part of the group today: first violinist Lukas Hagen, violist Veronika Hagen, and cellist Clemens Hagen. Rainer Schmidt, who took over the second violin from Angelika Hagen, joined the quartet back in 1987.

The quartet’s international career truly began to take off in 1981, when violinist Gidon Kremer introduced the four children of Salzburg’s Hagen musical family at the very first Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival. Clemens Hagen, the youngest of the group, was only fifteen at the time. Yet the previous summer, the Hagens had already made their debut in Lucerne, appearing in the “Young Artists” series.

Since then, the Hagen Quartet has maintained a close relationship with our Festival, as reflected in the photo gallery that follows – from numerous further acclaimed return appearances and their role as “artistes étoiles” during the 2011 Summer Festival to Claudio Abbado’s invitation to perform with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra.

It is therefore only fitting that the Hagen Quartet will give its final concert in Switzerland at Lucerne Festival Spring, on 28 March. The 2025/26 season marks the end of an era: the Hagens have embarked on their farewell tour – and this is one last chance to hear them live. Two additional artists will join them in Lucerne. The cellist Julia Hagen, daughter of Clemens Hagen and recipient of the UBS Young Artist Award at Lucerne Festival in 2024, will enlarge the ensemble so as to perform Franz Schubert’s masterful String Quintet. The program also includes another landmark of the chamber music repertoire, with Kirill Gerstein at the piano for Johannes Brahms’s Piano Quintet, Op. 34.