Musical postcards addressed to the Salzburg master: in its new CD project, the Kuss Quartet once again embarks on a musical journey through time, and it has received rave reviews for it.
"Verve, energy, and charm" is what Guy Engels identifies in his review for pizzicato magazine; he also writes of "unique expressiveness and stylistic confidence" and attests that the Kuss Quartet and violist Muriel Razavi demonstrate “an intuitive understanding of the music and a keen eye for detail. They blend these elements into a natural, unforced overall sound”.
Wolfram Goertz writes for the Rheinische Post about the Mozart quintets: “The Kuss Quartet plays them with clear articulation and structural alertness, avoiding any sentimentality and instead allowing the music to appear as a fragile structure.”
Eleonore Büning reviewed the CD on the SWR Kultur programme and concludes that the members of the Kuss Quartet “play Mozart in the same way they approach everything: naturally meticulous and perfect in every detail, yet at the same time with unbridled energy and presence. It doesn’t get any better than this.”
Building acoustic bridges between the present and bygone eras has become a true hallmark of the quartet. With the new recording project, the four musicians have turned their attention to all six of Mozart’s string quintets, pairing classical masterpieces with contemporary compositions: “We felt that ‘simply’ recording the Mozart quintets didn’t quite suit us,” says the ensemble. “So we came up with the idea of asking well-known, great contemporary composers to compose short ‘postcards’ to Mozart.”
Vol. 1 of the complete recording series, released in May 2026, introduces two new quartet works by Manfred Trojahn and Matthew Shlomowitz. These are presented alongside Mozart’s String Quintets Nos. 4 and 1, recorded with the American-Iranian violist Muriel Razavi. For the quartet, this recording fulfils a special wish, and they have deliberately involved top young talents from the classical music scene: “We thought we’d ask younger people to join us in recording this fantastic music. Young violists who have left university and are at the start of their careers – and so we chose three wonderful young artists.”
One can look forward to the forthcoming two albums – for these, the composers Rebecca Saunders, Enno Poppe, Isabel Mundry and Sarah Nemtsov have been asked to compose new ‘postcards’ to Mozart.
Kuss Quartet and Muriel Razavi:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, String Quintets K. 174 and 516
Manfred Trojahn: Introduktion & abgebrochenes Finale "Ein einsames Cello hallt durch die leere Saalflucht eines ländlichen, sommerlichen Chateau"
Matthew Shlomowitz: Bagatelle für Streichquartett
Rubicon, 5061094590124
