Germany's Tetzlaff Quartett is made up of artists who have their own individual careers, and when not on tour, the group tends to perform just several concerts annually. Nevertheless, the Tetzlaff has been ranked among the world's top string quartets since its formation.

Named for violinist Christian Tetzlaff and cellist Tanja Tetzlaff, his sister, the Tetzlaff Quartett was formed in 1994. The other members are violinist Elisabeth Kufferath and violist Hanna Weinmeister. All four members are very musically active outside the quartet: Christian Tetzlaff is in demand internationally as a soloist; Kufferath is a chamber player who has performed with Lars Vogt, Antje Weithaas, and Isabelle Faust, and a professor of violin at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hannover; Weinmeister is first concertmaster at the Zurich Opera House and an avid chamber player who has worked with, among others, Leonidas Kavakos, Heinz Holliger, and Gidon Kremer; Tanja Tetzlaff is a frequent concerto soloist as well as a chamber player who has performed with Vogt, Martin Fröst, and Carolin Widmann. Despite the demands on their time, the Tetzlaff Quartett soon found itself in demand at top European venues and American venues. The quartet has appeared in such halls as the Auditorium du Louvre in Paris, the Konzerthaus in Berlin, and Carnegie Hall in New York. The Tetzlaff Quartett has toured North America four times, appearing on major chamber music series each time, and has appeared at the German festivals Berliner Festwochen, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, and Bremen Musikfest.

The Tetzlaff Quartett's four recordings (as of 2020) have brought rigor and excitement to the core string quartet repertory. The group made its debut on the CAvi-Music label in 2010 with a recording of the unusual pairing of string quartets by Sibelius and Schoenberg. After a recording of Berg's Lyric Suite and Mendelssohn's String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 13, the group moved to Ondine in 2017, releasing an album of quartets by Schubert and Haydn. In 2020, they followed that up with an album of late Beethoven string quartets, including the Grosse Fuge, Op. 133. ~ James Manheim, Rovi