String bonanza: Three quartets in 10 days

The Modigliani String Quartet will perform at Union College Memorial Chapel on Sunday.

The next 10 days will be a dream for local string quartet fans, because the Modigliani, the Danel, and the Dover quartets will be performing. Although all of them have won numerous awards, what’s especially impressive is that the quartets have had the same players for many years and two of them still have their founding members. What has kept them together?

“Friendship,” said violinist Philippe Bernhard of the Modigliani in an email. “The hardest part of working so intensely with three other people [for 13 years] is to accept your differences. We decided very early on to see them as strengths and not weaknesses.”

Modigliani String Quartet

WHEN: 3 p.m. Sunday

WHERE: Union College Memorial Chapel

HOW MUCH: $25

MORE INFO: 388-6080; www.unioncollegeconcerts.org

Quatuor Danel

WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 27

WHERE: Zankel Music Center, Skidmore College

HOW MUCH: $8, $5

MORE INFO: 580-5321; www.skidmore.edu/zankel

Dover String Quartet

WHEN: 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 28

WHERE: Union College Memorial Chapel

HOW MUCH: $25

MORE INFO: 388-6080; www.unioncollegeconcerts.org

Violinist Joel Link of the Dover agreed. Now in their seventh year as a quartet, the members may disagree over a musical point but at “the end of the day, we get along with each other. We’re like a family,” he said.

But Danel violist Vlad Bogdanas said in the 11 years he’s been in the quartet, which was founded 25 years ago, it’s the musical chemistry between the quartet’s two founding violinists Marc Danel and Gilles Millet that has made the difference.

“Marc and Gilles just can’t live without it anymore,” Bogdanas said in an email. “What keeps us together is simply the joy of sharing wonderful musical moments around an endless and amazing repertoire.”

Although the world has many string quartets, all the musicians agreed that being a member of a great string quartet was always a dream.

“When we first went to college, many of us might have thought of being the great soloist,” Link said. “But playing in a quartet is the ultimate form of music making where you have the greatest individuality. The repertoire is infinite and so many composers saved their best for writing quartets. It’s a venerated art form.”

Bogdanas said the Modigliani members are “all quartet addicts.”

“I actually live the life I have always wanted: a life made of travels, concerts and … restaurants. It’s not always easy and I am often heartbroken not to spend more time with my family, but on the other hand it’s so stimulating to be on stage with such great colleagues all over the world.”

Considering that all the quartets travel so much — the Modigliani will be on a 10-day U.S. tour before heading to Turkey; the Danel will be visiting six states before heading to England; and the Dover will be in and out of New York City all month — there is little spare time. But Bogdanas said Danel members have considered a fling at more solo work, playing a period instrument, running a chamber music festival or even playing bass guitar in a rock band.

“I don’t think any of us would like to do anything else, at least permanently,” he said.

The quartets each pride themselves on what makes them special: the Modigliani’s deep friendship and common history translates into a concert that is really a musical discussion; the Danel’s diverse and deep repertoire, ranging from the 15th century to world premieres by living composers, gives their concerts spontaneity and freshness; and the Dover’s commitment to musical honesty and “bringing their A game” inspires everyone to create compelling performances.

Each will perform works they love. Modigliani performs Beethoven (“the Himalaya of string quartet writing”), Schubert (“the spirit of chamber music”) and Dvorak (“vivid”). Danel will do an all-Beethoven program (“he challenges us through time and space”). Dover will play Mozart, Dutilleux (“fiendishly difficult but a sonic masterpiece”) and will work with New York Philharmonic principal clarinetist Anthony McGill in Brahms.