Klenke Quartet

On this new recording, the Klenke Quartett enter a unique and fascinating musical field of contrasts between compositional avant-gardism and a return to folk melodies and native roots with string quartets by Maurice Ravel, Erwin Schulhoff and Ulvi Cemal Erkin. All three composers were very aware of their musical origins and incorporated them into their works in their own unique way. All three combine sounds and dances from very different countries and cultures in a marvelous way and draw listeners and players alike into a whirlwind of musical rhythms and melodies. In Erwin Schulhoff's "5 Pieces for String Quartet", you can hear echoes of waltzes, as well as tangos, and tarantellas.

On this new recording, the Klenke Quartett enter a unique and fascinating musical field of contrasts between compositional avant-gardism and a return to folk melodies and native roots with string quartets by Maurice Ravel, Erwin Schulhoff and Ulvi Cemal Erkin. All three composers were very aware of their musical origins and incorporated them into their works in their own unique way. All three combine sounds and dances from very different countries and cultures in a marvelous way and draw listeners and players alike into a whirlwind of musical rhythms and melodies. In Erwin Schulhoff's "5 Pieces for String Quartet", you can hear echoes of waltzes, as well as tangos, and tarantellas.

For some years, my touchstone for the Tchaikovsky quartets has been the 1993 Borodin Quartet recordings (Teldec, 1/94 – nla), eloquent accounts that reach deeply into the music. The Klenke Quartet immediately invite comparison, with an identical programme (even the order on the two CDs is the same) and, with one or two exceptions, timings for the individual movements within a few seconds of each other.

The Klenke Quartett, based in Berlin and Thuringia, was founded in 1991 at the Musikhochschule Weimar. Since then, and still in its original formation, it has enriched the concert life “as one of the most distinguished European ensembles.“ (Gewandhaus-Magazin). The quartet regularly plays with violist Harald Schoneweg. Their close artistic bond and homogeneity in interpretation makes this new complete recording of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Six String Quintets, released in a premium 3-CD box set, a recording with reference character, unveiling all the nuances between joy and contemplation, the distinct refinement and condensation, and most of all of all the soundscapes and compositional techniques in Mozart’s Quintets.