On the newly released Volume 4 of the complete recording, the famous "Dissonance Quartet" (K. 465) is combined with three of the Milanese or rather Italian Quartets (K. 157, K. 159, K. 160) composed about twelve years earlier.
The online magazine Pizzicato raved about the recording: "The listener experiences an enormously contrasted, well-shaped and playful Mozart(...) However, they never rely on effects, everything sounds coherent. The joy of playing and the joy of communication (...) are definitely an asset. (...) A Mozart with character, played to perfection!" And the magazine Fono Forum wrote: "One senses that the Mozart style has become second nature to them ... with the contrast of gently swaying melancholy in the Andante and an irresistible drive in the concluding Presto of K. 157, the recording goes a step beyond the energy level of the great Hagen recording from the 1980s and in turn sets new standards."
The members of the Armida Quartet explain what is different about this Mozart recording and why there are good arguments for their unusual interpretations in a detailed interview.
Already released volumes of the complete recording have been enthusiastically reviewed in recent years. "This is what the state of the (Moz) art sounds like", wrote Fono Forum about Volume 2, while the Tagesspiegel, on the occasion of Volume 3, attested to the quartet's "fresh approach to the repertoire classics" through their exploration of the Urtext.
Volume 5 will complete the CD edition of the Armida Quartet this April.
